Box Score ROME, Ga. – The University of West Georgia Volleyball team moved to 2-0 on the week after a hard-fought five set win over the Shorter Hawks on Friday night, earning a berth in the Gulf South Conference Tournament in the process.

UWG's (13-12, 7-6 GSC) defense, led by Kelli Kaiser, Zoë LaBreche, Allison Bowser, and Caitlin Frazee who all picked up double digit digs, held Shorter (6-19, 2-12 GSC) to 39 kills on a .105 hitting percentage, carrying the Wolves to their seventh conference win of the season.

"Truly a team win," said head coach Kara Hellmann. "We are having different people step up in different moments over the last few matches and tonight was no different. Really proud of our team and the grit we showed tonight."

Shorter blitzed West Georgia to begin set one as the Hawks took a commanding 12-6 lead, forcing coach Hellmann to burn her first timeout. Out of the break, UWG got right back into the set as kills from LaBreche and Sanai Young sparked a 6-1 run to cut the Wolves deficit to one. The two teams then traded points until a kill from Frazee began a 5-0 run, giving West Georgia a 19-17 advantage. Moments later, UWG had set point at 24-22 before back-to-back points from Shorter flipped the momentum as the Hawks went on to win, 28-26.

The Wolves bounced back nicely in set two, beginning by taking a 13-8 lead after a service ace from Isabela Segoviano and another kill from LaBreche. A couple points later, West Georgia matched their largest lead of the set at 16-11 after a kill from Sanai Young before the Hawks caught fire, using a 5-0 run to tie the game at 16. A kill from Shorter's Laila Bernardino gave the Hawks a 18-17 lead, but their lead would be short lived as a kill from Claire Conway ignited an 8-0 UWG run to win the set 25-18.

Set three was all Shorter as West Georgia could never get going, resulting in a 25-13 set win for the Hawks.

Set four was the most competitive set of the match as the score read 10-10 to start. The Wolves took the largest lead of the set at 16-12 after a kill from Young began a 6-2 run before Shorter responded, by scoring the next four points to tie the set at 16. The set remained extremely tight into the 20s until Young erupted for two blocks and a kill, giving West Georgia set point at 24-21, before Kaiser won the set for the Wolves with an ace.

Coming into today's match, UWG was 1-4 in five set matches, but the Wolves put their fifth set woes behind them as they controlled the game from start to finish. The set began with West Georgia taking a 4-0 lead, before extending their lead to 14-4 after a pair of service aces from Frazee and a handful of attack errors from Shorter. The Hawks scored the next two points until another attack error won the set, 15-6 for the Wolves.

Marley Staats led the way with a career-high 13 kills, while LaBreche picked up 11 kills and 16 digs.

West Georgia will end their road trip on Sunday after they travel to Cleveland, Tennessee for a 1:00 p.m. rematch against the Lee Flames.