MONROE, La. - In its first Sun Belt match of the season, Georgia State fell to ULM 1-3 (25-20, 25-27,18-25, 33-35) Thursday night at Fant Ewing Coliseum in Monroe, La.
Georgia State (3-8, 0-1 Sun Belt) got off to a hot start winning set one before ULM (5-11, 1-0 Sun Belt) stormed back to take the following three sets. Set four was the longest set of the season for the Panthers as the two teams combined for 12 match points. Overall, the set featured 20 tied scores and ten lead changes.
The Panthers were led by Erin Wyatt who notched her fourth double-double of the season with 10 kills and 16 digs. Ava Vlkovic continued her stellar play defensively as she led Georgia State with 22 digs. Meisheia Griffin had another solid performance as she tallied 11 kills while hitting .346.
Vlkovic made her presence felt in set one as the sophomore libero tallied a set-high 12 digs. In set one, Georgia State fell behind 10-15 before storming back with a 15-5 run to win the set, 25-20. Offensively, the Panthers were led by Griffin who logged three kills while hitting .500.
Set two was tightly contested before ULM took a 22-19 lead late in the set. Georgia State responded with a 5-1 run to take a 24-23 lead. ULM then bounced back with a 4-1 run to win the set, 27-25.
The momentum from set two carried over to set three for the Warhawks as they earned a 25-18 set victory. The Panthers had no answer for Cali Assaley of ULM as she registered six kills with a perfect hitting percentage of 1.000.
Both teams refused to go away in set four as they both played their longest set of the season. After eight ULM match points and four GSU match points, the Warhawks eventually sealed the set victory, 35-33, to win the match.
Wyatt put together a stellar performance in set four as she tallied six kills while hitting .385. Assaley of ULM continued her dominant play in the final set as she notched 12 kills while hitting .550.
Georgia State will look to bounce back when it heads south to Lafayette, La., to face Louisiana on Friday night, live on ESPN+.
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