MOBILE, Ala. – South Alabama extended its home match streak to 18, but lost only its second home set this season to ULM in the 3-1 (9-25, 20-25, 26-24, 7-25) Sun Belt Conference contest Saturday. There were 12 ties and four lead changes in the third set with ULM taking a three-point lead at three intervals early on. A Madeline Williams' kill gave ULM a 24-23 lead and she broke the 24-24 tie with another kill. Taylor Thomas served up the ace for the set-winning point after her kill put the Warhawks up 23-22.
 
Hannah Maddux had a match-best 24 kills to lead the Jaguars. Williams posted 11 kills for ULM with Thomas adding eight. Rachel Hickey tallied 25 digs on the afternoon for USA with three Warhawks in double figures: Thomas (14), Rogers (13)  and Brynn Botkin (11).
 
"Another slow start for us today in our second match against South Alabama and they knocked us down in the first set with some extremely aggressive serving; however, we made some adjustments on our side of the court and played a much more balanced game in set two," said ULM head volleyball coach Charlie Olson. "Set three we played clean volleyball from start to finish and ended up with a huge confidence boost and set victory. USA came back with a vengeance in set four and pushed us back into a deficit from the service line once again. We have made some small strides this weekend, but really need to clean up our side of the ball as we head back home for four-straight matches against more tough SBC competition."
 
After the ULM win in set three, South Alabama took a 6-0 lead in set four and closed out the match with a 7-0 scoring run.
 
ULM returns to Fant-Ewing Coliseum for a Thursday-Friday, Oct. 6-7 series vs. Southern Miss. Thursday's match is set for 6 p.m. and Friday's contest is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start. Both matches will be broadcast on ESPN+.