Lady Bears suffer Senior Night loss
Box Score
A raucous crowd and strong start gave Miles the opportunity to close out the regular season with a victory. But the Lady Golden Bears could not capitalize on the early advantage, dropping their Senior Night match against rival Tuskegee in four sets (25-21, 17-25, 19-25, 20-25) Tuesday at Knox-Windham Gymnasium.
The loss was the third straight for Miles (9-19, 6-12 SIAC) and gave Tuskegee (12-16, 12-8) the season series sweep. Seniors
Alexus Moore (9-8-35) and
Antwaneshia Green (7-5-21) led the charge in their final home match but it was not enough to offset the Golden Tigerettes duo of Taliyana Bryant (14-4-26) and Kiara Hooks (11-6-28), who led the charge in the final three sets.
Moore was hot in the first set with six kills that came at very opportune times to help the Lady Bears, who hit .212 in the first set, to the opening game victory. But the energy that accompanied Miles in the opening stanza slowly started to dissipate and Tuskegee took full advantage. Setter Janae Graham (35 assists)Â began to consistently find Bryant and Hooks in the second set. They had eight of the team's 13 kills in the second set and did not make an error in 12 attacks as the Golden Tigerettes evened the match.
The final two sets saw more of the same for Tuskegee as Bryant and Hooks continued to power home kills. The errors began to pile up for Miles with just 11 kills and 17 attack errors over the final two sets. The Lady Bears would match points with Tuskegee in each game, but the attack errors or untimely service errors would put the team in a hole or kill any chance at a rally.
Zahria Radofrd had a match-high 12 digs for Tuskegee.
Skyler Johnson had seven kills, five digs, three solo blocks and two services aces,
Kayla Ford had 22 assists,
Lauren Moorer had a team-high nine digs while senior
Tealla Shepard (1-2-3, two digs) closed out her home career for Miles, which plays next week in the SIAC Tournament at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
