By Ceara Hester |ContributorAugusta University’s volleyball team began its 2018 season with a home tournament, sweeping Albany State, Mount Olive and Montevallo in the annual Jaguar Rumble tournament on Aug. 25-26.During preseason, Augusta was voted by the coaches to finish third in the Peach Belt Conference with McKenzie Beck named PBC preseason All-Conference. Beck, who hopes to play overseas after graduation, led the nation in triple-doubles last season with 12 under her belt. With expectations high, the Jags, led by Beck, started out strong with three 3-0 wins.The Jaguars beat Albany State in all three sets of their first match this season. The scores were 25-18, 25-16 and 25-7. The team had a total of 37 kills and 10 service aces in the match. Senior outside hitter Savanna Gonzales led the team in kills with nine. Natalia Gouveia, senior defensive specialist, played all three sets and came out with four serving aces, while senior setter Beck almost had a triple double with 13 assists, nine digs, and six kills.It was clear by this match that Augusta had the offensive skills to lead themselves to victory. With only 10 errors out of the three sets, none of which came from the third, they continued to increase their hitting percentage with each set from .257 in the first to .385 in the last.“This was the first game of the season, so we really wanted to set our level of play for the rest of the season,” Gonzales said. “We wanted to set the tone for who we are as a team in this game.”As far as having a strategy for playing against Albany State, AU went in almost blind.“We’ve never played them before and they don’t have any film online, so we just came out and kept our intensity and our level of play and not going down to theirs,” Beck said.Next, Augusta took on Mount Olive and ended the first day of the tournament with yet another clean sweep. The team, again, won the first three sets to end the match. They took home a win with ends scores of 25-13, 25-3 and 25-19. Beck led the team in kills with a total of 11 of the 40 made, and, again, Gonzales led in aces with four. AU had their highest hitting average of the tournament during the second set. With no errors, their average was .556 compared to Mount Olive’s -.385.The team had less service errors this match but dropped in their total of aces. However, with more kills and blocking assists, the Lady Jags kept proving that their offense was still something to watch out for.“Previously, about three weeks ago, we had preseason and seeing all of our hard work that we’ve been doing for the past couple weeks all come together, it was an awesome feeling, an amazing feeling,” said sophomore middle hitter Chloe Allen, on the team’s 3-0 wins.Coming out from their 2-0 win on day one, the Lady Jags carried the same energy onto the court on the final day of the Jaguar Rumble where the team played Montevallo, but it was not as smooth of a ride as the first day. The Jaguars led the first set with a 25-20 end score, but Montevallo played harder during the second. Augusta was down 23-24, but they fought back and won the set with a final score of 26-24. Finally, during the last set of the tournament, AU brought home another match win with a final set score of 25-19, making the team 3-0 for the start of the season.Beck had her first triple-double of the season with 16 assists, 10 digs, and 10 kills. Allen made two service aces and 11 kills this match which ended with team totals of 43 kills and five aces. Once again, the Jaguars continued to enhance their hitting averages in each set starting out at .237 and ending with .303. However, with a tougher match came more errors. They had a total of 17 errors on Sunday, but their steady offence skills kept them ahead.AU Coach Sharon Quarles was happy that she had the chance to get all her players onto the floor in the start of the new season and was proud of her team for their performances this weekend.“Winning brings more people out," she said. "It’s contagious. So, we absolutely enjoy it, love it, and we want more of it.”The next match will be against Anderson and Winston-Salem at the Queens Tournament Labor Day weekend in Charlotte, N.C. To find more information about AU’s volleyball, visit AugustaJags.com.
Contact Ceara Hester at cehester@augusta.edu.