MONTICELLO, Ark. – On Tuesday night inside Steelman Field House, a pair of Great American Conference teams competed in a match fitting for league rivals as Southern Arkansas perpetrated a furious rally after dropping the first two sets only to be stopped shy of completing the road comeback as Arkansas-Monticello hung on in the fifth set (11-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-23, 13-15) to claim their first conference win of the season.

Senior outside hitter Alexia Southern and sophomore setter Alexa Bass each recorded their fourth-straight double-double in the loss. For Southern, her double-double effort came courtesy of 17 kills and ten digs, while Bass' double-double performance saw her collect 31 assists and 15 digs.

Bass and Southern joined three other Lady Muleriders with double-digit digs including sophomore defensive specialist Whitney Brown who recorded a career-high with 28 digs. Classmate Riley Marsh added 14 digs and freshman Alana Perez chipped in with a dozen digs.

Sophomore Seven Powers picked up ten-plus kills for the third-straight match after finishing a kill shy of a season-high with 14, while senior Alli O'Banion added seven kills. Ten of Powers' 14 kills came in the third through fifth sets.

Freshman front liner Bailey Cagle led SAU in total blocks as she recorded 4.0, while Powers added 2.0. It was the eighth match this season in which Cagle has collected 3.0 or more total blocks.

Arkansas-Monticello wasted no time getting started in Tuesday night's opening set. The Blossoms built a 14-6 advantage behind eight kills and five Southern Arkansas attack errors. The UAM lead would quickly grow to 20-10, before a 5-1 run from the Blossoms, which included four kills, closed the set.

SAU would find a rhythm late in the second set as they engineered an 8-3 run, while trailing 18-13 to even the second frame at 21 all. During that run, the Lady Muleriders received a pair of kills each from Southern and Powers and a single kill from Cagle. On the next serve, Southern Arkansas would take the lead as O'Banion slammed home her third kill of the night to put SAU up 22-21.

UAM's Maggie Pyles answered O'Banion's kill with one of her own, and with the former serving, the Blossoms tallied the next three points to take set two. Two of the final three UAM points in the set came from Pyles in the form of service aces.

Despite dropping the second set, Southern Arkansas' attacking was much improved from the opening set as they hit .297 with 15 kills to just four errors compared to just five kills and eight attack errors which led to a -.100 attack percentage in the first frame.

The Lady Muleriders would fend off the sweep in set three as they put together a 7-1 run to build a 19-14 lead after surrendering a 12-8 advantage earlier in the set. A kill from freshman Lauren Smith moments later put Southern Arkansas up 20-16 and consecutive UAM attack errors helped the Lady Muleriders distance themselves from the Blossoms at 23-16, while also cushioning an ensuing 5-1 surge from UAM that pulled the home team with two, 23-21.

Southern Arkansas benefitted from a UAM service error that pushed the Lady Muleriders to set point, before a bad set from the Blossoms led to a set three win.

The action intensified in the fourth set as neither team was able to build a lead larger than two points. That fourth set saw 17 ties and after a tied set at 21, Southern notched three kills to highlight SAU's march to a fifth set.

In the fifth and final set, Arkansas-Monticello appeared to be distancing themselves from SAU late as the Blossoms constructed a 9-5 lead in the race to 15, but a 7-2 run from the Lady Muleriders proved otherwise.

Highlighting that run were two kills from Powers and single kills from Bass and O'Banion as Southern Arkansas took a 12-11 lead. UAM rallied post timeout to take a 13-12 advantage, before Bass snuck a kill off of a dig to even the set at 13. However, the Blossoms had the last say as a bad set from Southern Arkansas followed with a UAM kill to seal the match for Arkansas-Monticello.

The Lady Muleriders return home for a 6 p.m. first-serve with Harding on Thursday, September 28. Live links for all of the action can be found at http://www.muleriderathletics.com.