The Alabama volleyball team made short work of Alabama State Tuesday night, winning the match in three straight sets. The Crimson Tide made it look all too easy with 39 kills and 40 digs.
Setter Sierra Wilson didn’t look like she had sprained her ankle only a month and a half ago. She earned 34 assists. The injury is behind her, she said.
“Right now, personally, I plan to try and focus on keeping a balanced offense,” she said. “My job is to try and really get my hitters one-on-one with the blockage and good looks. That’s something I need to really focus on. And as a team, it’s just staying competitive 100 percent of the time.”
Brittany Thomas, Krystal Rivers and Katherine White each notched eight kills. Mattie Weldy played all three sets, earning three kills in the process. Head coach Ed Allen said he used the match to play some athletes who hadn’t seen much playing time.
“We really wanted an opportunity to play without being maybe necessarily stretched or over-tested going into what we expect to be a pretty exciting match on Sunday against Kentucky,” he said. “I know [head coach Penny Lucas-White] is doing a terrific job of building that program there at [Alabama] State, and we felt like, for a midweek match coming off a very difficult weekend at Clemson, it was probably one of the most ideal situations we could ask for.”
Overall, the team hit .273 and had three blocks. It wasn’t quite the performance Allen was looking for, but he said the team executed well enough for the win.
“I felt like the ball control was fairly consistent,” Allen said. “[We] could’ve done a better job from an attacking perspective. I think [Alabama State] had six or seven blocks in the match. Really could’ve done a better job of seeing the block and working around that block. As far as offensive production, I think we had fairly good balance across the board as well.”
Alabama improved to 12-2 on the season as it heads into SEC play. The team averages 14.3 kills per set on the season with an average of 13.0 against Alabama State. Despite the below-average offensive performance, Wilson said the match was good to get the team playing together.
“It was really just all about focusing on ourselves and executing what we knew we could do,” Wilson said. “And also, the speed of the play allowed me to kind of distribute it more to my other hitters and get them some new looks. So all around it was a good match for us before we enter into SEC play.”
