FINAL STATS

JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State volleyball team rallied after a first set loss on Saturday to hand Murray State a 3-1 (22-25, 25-15, 25-22, 26-24) defeat in a key Ohio Valley Conference match at Pete Mathews Coliseum.

The Gamecocks (14-13, 9-7 OVC) and Racers (13-15, 8-8 OVC) entered the afternoon tied for fourth in the league standings, and JSU used the win to climb into a third-place tie with Eastern Kentucky with two matches remaining. The Gamecocks finish the season at home against Southeast Missouri and Eastern Illinois next weekend.

After a close loss in the first set, senior Kara Slater got hot and guided the Gamecocks to wins in the next three. The middle blocker from Colorado Springs, Colo., got 13 of her match-high 16 kills in the final three sets to join fellow senior Caitlin Vorbeck as the lone JSU players with double digits in kills. Slater needed just 25 swings and used a .480 attack percentage for her offensive output, while she was in on six of the team's eight blocks on the other side of the net.

Vorbeck's 13 kills came on her .242 attack percentage while also surpassing the 1,300 kills mark for her career. Her 1,308 career kills pulls the Raytown, Mo., native to within four of A.J. Sanders for fifth place on the school's all-time kills list.

Three other Gamecocks put down at least eight kills on the afternoon, including nine each from sophomores Jen Meyer and Alyx Schulte. Junior Stephanie Koontz added eight.

Schulte, a native of Cold Spring, Ky., led all players with 19 digs, one day after she picked up 20 in a sweep of UT Martin. Junior Lauren Harkins pitched in 15 digs for the Gamecocks, moving her career total to 1,658, 31 away from Brittney Whitten in second on the school's career digs list.

Senior Brooke Schumacher and freshman Abbey Heredia teamed up for 49 of the Gamecocks' 55 assists in the match, with Schumacher leading the charge with 30. The Lake In The Hills, Ill., native inched closer to Emily Withers' school record of 4,335 career assists, finishing the day just 30 shy of that mark.

The Racers got 12 kills from Becca Lamb on offense, while Kayleah Sauer led them on the back row with 17 digs.

The Gamecocks will get their final weekend of the regular season underway on Friday with a 7 p.m. match against Southeast Missouri. They will close out the weekend with Senior Day on Saturday against Eastern Illinois, a match that will begin at 12:30 p.m. The Gamecocks' three seniors, Slater, Vorbeck and Schumacher, will be honored in a pre-match ceremony.