Volleyball Pulls out 3-2 Road Win at UAM

Box Score MONTICELLO, Ark. – Megan Kunkel finished with nine kills on the night, but turned in four of them in the deciding fifth set including back-to-back kills to score the final two points as Southeastern picked up a 3-2 road victory over Arkansas-Monticello on Saturday afternoon in Monticello, Ark.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 7-7 on the year and 2-1 in Great American Conference play heading into a Sept. 30 matchup on the road at Dallas Baptist before returning home to face Arkansas Tech on Oct. 3 at 7 p.m.
 
Emily Gentle paced the Storm offense with a match-high 16 kills, while Ariel Sanders added 13 and Courtney Miller chipped in 11.
 
Kunkel was next with her nine kills, while Julia Benford added seven.
 
Alissa Benson dished out 44 assists on the night, splitting time with Madelynne Cera for two sets with Cera adding six assist.  Benson completed the double-double by adding 19 digs.
 
On defense, five players posted double-digit dig numbers as the team piled up 96 for the match.
 
Kelsey Zerkel led that group with 23 digs, with Benson's 19 next, followed by Miller who completed a double-double with 16, as did Gentle who added 13 digs.  Kunkel rounded out the group with 12 digs.
 
At the net the team posted nine blocks combined, led by five from Benford, while Gentle added four.
 
The deciding fifth set was back-and-forth out of the gate, but a five point SE run gave them a 9-5 lead.
 
Four-straight UAM points would knot the game at 9-9, and the Cotton Blossoms would eventually pull ahead 12-11.
 
Southeastern then scored three-straight points to take a 14-12 lead, but the team would see three match point opportunities, one serving and two receiving, go UAM's way with the home team moving ahead 16-15.
 
It was then the Storm's turn to spoil a pair of Blossom match-point chances as SE scored the final three points of the set for the 19-17 win.
 
Southeastern dropped the first set of the match 25-22 with UAM scoring four of the final five points in the set.
 
The Storm would even the match at 1-1 with a 25-23 win in set two, overcoming an early deficit and scoring seven of the set's final 11 points.
 
Southeastern would take a 2-1 lead in the match when it split an 18-18 tie with three-straight points and finished on a 7-3 run to win 25-21.
 
With a chance to clinch the match in four sets the Storm got off to a bad start and never recovered, falling behind 11-2 early with UAM cruising to a 25-15 win in the set to send the match to the deciding fifth set.