The University of West Florida volleyball team enjoyed success on the road, winning three-of-four matches at the Ramada Inn Invitational in St. Joseph, Mo.

After defeating Northwest Missouri and Pittsburg State the first day of the tournament, they dropped the third match to Emporia State Saturday morning, before rebounding to beat host school Missouri Western.

The opening match against Northwest Missouri went the full five games with the Argonauts winning the odd games. The match was highlighted by streaks as each team took turns going on scoring sprees. In the second match, the women beat Pittsburg State 3-0 in very close matches, (30-25, 35-33, 30-27). UWF won the second game on a kill by Jessica Bragion and an attack error by the Gorilla's Laura Toman.

Saturday morning the Argonauts lost to Emporia State 3-1 despite having three players with double-digit kills. After losing the first game 30-28 in a close match, the Argos rebounded with a 30-26 win after giving the hornets a 10-4 head start. In the third game the Argos were unable to overcome the Hornets early lead, never getting closer than one point at 21-20. The Hornets then pulled away 9-3 for a 30-23 win.

The fourth game was similar to the first, with 11 ties. UWF came within two points four times after the teams reached 20 points, but wound up with a 30-28 loss, giving Emporia the match.

West Florida came back form the loss to defeat host Missouri Western 3-0 to post a 3-1 tournament record for the second consecutive week. In games one and two, the Argos used late game surges to pull away for 30-23 and 30-25 wins. In a see-saw battle where each team had a lead, West Florida was able to overcome a 27-25 Griffon lead with three straight kills by Naiara Fernandes to put the Argos up 28-27. Consecutive kills by Jenny Lass and Marcela Cunha gave UWF the game and the match.

Lass and Fernandes were named to the Ramada Invitational All-Tournament Team. Lass received the second most votes and their 3-1 record earned UWF the second place trophy.

Article Tools