Tigers Volleyball Defeats Jackson State Friday

Friday, September 2

Memphis, Tenn.

12 pm

University of Memphis

2-2

Jackson State

0-5

Jackson State

Memphis

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Sep 02, 2016 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Memphis-Jackson State Boxscore

Memphis returns to action vs. Eastern Illinois Friday night.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – After a 1-2 start to the season, University of Memphis head coach April Jauregui shook things up a little for the Tigers' first match of the 2016 Tiger Invitational. And, her team responded.

Memphis defeated Jackson State 3-0 at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse Friday afternoon. The Tigers swept the match by scores of 25-10, 25-17 and 25-12. With the win, Memphis improved to 2-2. Jackson State fell to 0-5.

The Tigers return to action for their second match of the tournament at 7 p.m. (CT) against Eastern Illinois. In Friday's opening match, Louisiana Tech recorded a 3-1 victory over Eastern Illinois.

Two of Jauregui's most-notable changes were inserting freshman Addison Root into the starting lineup and moving senior Michaella Moss to libero for the first time in her career.

The changes worked with Root registering seven kills and two digs, and Moss collecting 19 digs. Memphis, as a team, was more efficient offensively with a 36.0 attack percentage.

"Our lineup changes were made so our seniors would take on more leadership responsibilities," said Jauregui. "Mickey (Michaella Moss) is a great passer and defender.

"When you go 1-2 like we did last weekend, you look to change things up and see if a new look will help. We'll see through this weekend's matches what effect those changes had for our team."

Senior McKenzie Hayes led the Tigers with 10 kills, while fellow seniors Catlin Lilly and Summer Morgan added nine and seven kills, respectively. Junior Regan Comperry handed out a match-high 35 assists. Memphis also had only two receiving errors the entire match.

"The whole goal of this match was for us to get into rhythm offensively," Jauregui said. "We worked on stuff we put in practice this week, and we did that well in this match. I'm glad we took care of business and finished strong."

The Tigers also started strong, gaining an early advantage in each set. In the first set, Memphis jumped out to a 12-3 lead on the way to a 25-10 win. Hayes had five kills, and Moss added six digs in the opening set.

Jackson State kept the second set close early and was tied with the Tigers at 8-all. At that point, Memphis put together a 5-1 mini-run to gain a 13-9 advantage. Jackson State remained within striking distance at 20-17, but the Tigers closed with a 5-0 spurt to take the second set 25-17. Moss added seven more digs in the second set.

The final set was all Memphis. The Tigers built an early 6-2 lead and increased that advantage to 20-10 before taking the third set 25-12.