MONTICELLO – The University of Arkansas at Monticello volleyball team recorded its sixth Gulf South Conference victory of the season in a 3-2 win over Ouachita Baptist Friday night.
 
Final game scores were 21-25, 25-8, 25-15, 21-25 and 15-13. With the win, UAM improves to 12-15 overall and 6-2 in the GSC-West, strengthening its second place standing, while OBU drops to 9-19 overall and 1-8 in the league.
 
OBU stormed out early in the first set, using a .240 team hitting percentage to defeat the Cotton Blossoms 25-21. It was more of the same in the fourth set, except better for OBU, which hit .267 as a team and took advantage of UAM’s worst set of the match. The Blossoms hit .048 in the fourth stanza.
 
The second and third sets were dominated by UAM, which hit .400 in the second set with 15 points coming off kills and .268 in the third set with 16 kills.
 
The fifth set looked to be in UAM’s favor, holding an 8-5 lead at the crossover break. OBU fought back to bring the score to 14-13, before an attack error by OBU’s Raichel Settle ended the game and match, giving UAM the hard-fought win.
 
Senior Mallory Storm paced the Blossoms with a career-high 18 kills, also the highest individual total in the match. Her 18 kills came on 40 attempts with only two errors for a match-high .400 hitting percentage.
 
Three other Blossoms reached double-digits offensively, as junior Dayna Moyer tallied 13 kills and seniors Nicole Ferguson and Sara Kindred added 12. Kindred recorded her sixth double-double of the season with the addition of team-high 22 digs.
 
Junior Vikki Crisco paced UAM at the net with 46 set assists and also added a match-high four service aces to her totals.
 
The Cotton Blossoms continue GSC competition this upcoming Tuesday, October 27 when the team plays host to Southern Arkansas inside Steelman Field House at 7 p.m.