The Lady Blazers (10-17, 4-7 Gulf South Conference) blew the crowd’s and their own minds with their comeback over the Alabama Huntsville Chargers (11-14, 5-6 GSC).

After the Chargers were introduced, the Lady Blazers were introduced with an epic video showdown.

As young fans walked to the sideline to greet their favorite volleyball team, the Lady Blazers gave them small volleyballs and high fives as their names were being called.

In under 30 seconds, the Chargers gave the Lady Blazers four points by hitting the ball out of bounds, giving them a six-point lead in the first set.

With so much confidence and hunger to win, sophomore setter Giulia Dias did a bump pass to sophomore middle blocker Christina Pettigrew, who spiked the ball and received a point.

The Lady Blazers won the first and second sets of the game. The strong start followed a rough patch of the season, as the Lady Blazers lost each of their previous three matches.

Head coach Kaleigh Zoucha has used the stretch to keep the team motivated while also improving as a team.

“Win or lose, we’re just trying to look for opportunities to still continue to move forward and get better every single week,” Zoucha said. “After a win, there’s a lot of positives we can focus on, but last weekend we played some really tough competition. I think we took some things from last weekend and worked on [them] this week.”

As the ball was dancing in the air, both teams were trying their hardest to gain a point. Sophomore outside hitter JoJo Smith spiked the ball to end the ongoing play and gain the Lady Blazers a point.

In the third and final set, the tension was high. The ball was getting spiked everywhere, but that wasn’t messing up the Lady Blazers’ state of mind.

As the ball started to fly towards Dias, she sent the ball flying right past her and into the out, giving the Lady Blazers a point.

With the Lady Blazers only a couple of points away from winning, they ended the night off with  sophomore outside hitter Mackenzie Murray spiking the ball tremendously hard, making Chargers outside hitter Gracie McGee fall to the floor with a loud slap and unable to recover the ball.

With that, the Lady Blazers won the match 3-0. Senior outside hitter Olivia Piazza was proud of the team’s effort.

“I thought we played very calmly today and together,” Piazza said. “We were able to pull out the W.”

Additionally, sophomore defensive specialist Ramsey Marshall saw the 3-0 sweep as a huge win for the team.

“I think we played amazing,” Marshall said. “We bounced back, and we haven’t had the best few weeks, but coming out and winning in three and sweeping them is definitely a positive for us.”

The Lady Blazers followed up the win with a 3-1 decision over Montevallo (16-10, 8-3 GSC).

The Lady Blazers will cap off their three-game homestand against Shorter (13-14, 6-5 GSC) on Oct. 25 at 6 p.m.

Written by  Mya Arthur, Staff Writer. Photo courtesy of VSU.