Jaguar volleyball team rallies to defeat Georgia College in five sets
By Madison Keel | Sports writer
The Augusta Jaguars stayed resilient and fought for their win over Georgia College and State University on Tuesday, Sept. 20 in Christenberry Fieldhouse.
The evening started with the AU volleyball team losing the first two sets to GCSU, by scores of 27-25 and 25-22. With only one set left for Georgia College to win the match, the Jaguars (2-1, 10-4) needed to push through and win three straight sets.
Alexis Diaz-Infante, the senior middle blocker from Phoenix, Ariz., said that it took “having pride” and “trust in [the] team” to pull out the victory. She went on to describe how the team has a lot of pride in playing on its home court and did not want to drop the match, especially to another Peach Belt Conference team. Furthermore, the Bobcats (3-1, 6-8) entered the match in first place in the PBC.
This also was the AU women’s first conference game on their home court, so the team did not want to fall short.
Set three turned the tide with Augusta winning 25-23. In the fourth and fifth set, the Jaguars started to settle into a rhythm winning 25-17 and 15-11, respectively. The winning kill came from outside hitter Abigail Levines, who smashed the ball to stop any thoughts of a GCSU rally in the final set.
AU Coach Sharon Quarles was proud of how her team rallied.
“This was a match with a lot of challenges, but it is not how you start, it is how you finish,” said Quarles, who took the Jaguars to the Elite Eight in NCAA Division II last season and has rebuilt her squad with a host of transfers.
Jazmyn Wheeler, who also hails from Phoenix and played with Diaz-Infante at Scottsdale Community College before coming to AU, shined in this match with a double-double and a total of 16 kills, the highest on the team. She was followed in kill count by Jada Suguturaga, who is a transfer from Casper College in Wyoming, with 11. Kayli Cleaver, the freshman outside hitter from Oakboro, N.C., added 10 kills.
Abigail Breeden, who came over from Charleston Southern, led AU in assists with 25. Close behind her was Samantha Zittrauer, the senior from Savannah who tallied 22 assists. Defensively, Kiera Barr, the senior from Granby, Colo,, numbered 23 digs in the game.
When asked how the team will be preparing for its next match, Diaz-Infante said it would be back to a finer point on Wednesday.
“We will be working on finishing in practice,” she said after the Jaguars had 35 errors on the night.
Diaz-Infante, who was preseason all-PBC, also praised the training staff for helping the players prep both “physically and mentally” for matches.
The Jaguar volleyball team will be taking on rival USC Aiken in a two-day doubleheader on Friday, Sept. 23, at 6 pm and then again on Saturday, Sept. 24. at 3 pm. Both matches are at Christenberry.
Contact Madison Keel at mkeel@augusta.edu.
Augusta’s Jada Suguturaga (13) dinks one over the net against Georgia College’s Mary Kate Kotzin (6) and Camryn Carlton in the Jaguars’ five-set victory. At the top of the page, the Jags respond to the come-from-behind victory. (photos by Madison Keel)
AU’s Jada Suguturaga blocks an attempted kill in action during the Jaguars’ five-set win over Georgia College. Teammates Madelyn Eden (R) and Jazmyn Wheeler (16) provide the support. (photo by Madison Keel)
