Jaguar volleyball team extends winning streak to nine

By Chris Rickerson | Sports editor

MILLEDGEVILLE—Augusta University’s volleyball team extended its winning streak to nine matches in a row, winning all three Friday and Saturday, Sept. 17-18, at the Centennial Center at Georgia College.

AU’s first match was against the University of West Alabama (0-6). In the match, the Jaguars won in three sets. The Jaguars defeated the Tigers by the scores of 25-12, 25-17 and 25-10. 

The Jaguars dominated the Tigers statistically with 42 kills, 12 aces and 51 digs. UWA finished with 20 kills, 2 aces and 30 digs. 

Seniors Kylie Martin and Chloe Allen led the team with 8 kills each. Alyssa Frazier, also a senior for the Jaguars, finished the match with 7 kills. 

On the defensive side, senior Holland Martin led AU with 14 digs. Junior Samantha Zittrauer also helped the Jaguars, leading the team with 17 assists. 

“We had a very solid performance in the first match with Ally Thees coming in as a backup setter and with Julie Archer’s performance,” said AU Coach Sharon Quarles. “Julie had 6 kills on 13 swings with 1 error, so she dominated.” 

Thees, new transfer from Georgia State University, is a sophomore for the Jaguars and Archer is a senior. 

AU’s second match was against the University of Montevallo (6-6) Friday evening. The Jaguars defeated the Falcons in four sets. The Falcons narrowly won the first set 25-23 but lost the next three sets to the Jaguars by the scores of 25-21, 25-23 and 25-21. 

Frazier led the Jaguars with a season-high 14 kills in the match. Holland Martin led AU defensively with 34 digs.

The final match for AU was against Valdosta State University (6-6) on Saturday. AU swept the Blazers in three sets by the scores of 25-19, 25-18 and 25-18. 

Once again, the Jaguars would dominate with 11 aces compared to the Blazers 3. Frazier led in kills for AU with 12, and Kylie Martin led on the defensive side with 16 digs.

AU’s nine game winning streak is similar to the one they had last year, winning 13 in a row to finish out the 2020 season. 

“I don’t like to compare teams to years past, but this team is molding together and there is a lot of opportunities to do very well and go far in the tournament and that is the goal,” said Quarles. 

Kylie Martin also spoke on the teams winning streak and the performance they have had so far this season.

“We lost our first two, so starting out like that is a little frustrating, but that just pushed us to want to win even more,” said Martin. “Our biggest competitor is ourselves, and we need to just play our game and continue to do that against good teams.” 

AU (9-2) next heads to Rome to face Shorter University (6-4) on Wednesday, Sept. 22.  The first home match will be Friday, Oct. 1, against conference rival Flagler at Christenberry Fieldhouse at 6 p.m.

Contact Chris Rickerson at crickerson@augusta.edu.

Alexis Diaz-Infante (21) prepares to spike to help the Augusta University volleyball win three more matches. Teammate Samantha Zittrauer (10) watches at the net. At the top of the page, Kylie Martin (13) goes for the kill while teammate Chloe Allen (6) looks on. (photos by Chris Rickerson)