ROME, Ga., – Four players reached double figures in kills as the University of North Alabama volleyball team knocked off the top seed in the 2014 Gulf South Conference volleyball tournament with a 3-2 win at Shorter Saturday afternoon. The 25-22, 19-25, 25-20, 16-25, 15-8 victory avenged a pair of losses to the Hawks earlier in the season and put UNA in the GSC championship match for the 23rd time in program history.

Lexie Bradley led the way for the Lions with 19 kills. The freshman local product from Florence hit a match-high .484 on the day. Natasha Fomina added a .405 hitting percentage for UNA with 17 kills.

"I was really impressed with the way our team stepped up," said UNA head coach Stephanie Radecki. "It was a great match with big swings, long rallies and some outstanding defense by both teams. We knew it would take a complete team effort to beat Shorter and that is what we had today."

UNA (20-11) set the stage for the match early in the opening set, jumping out to a 10-5 lead holding off a late Shorter surge to pick up the 25-22 victory. The Lions hit .306 in the first set with Megan Gorey leading the way with five kills.

The Lions led 16-13 in the second set before the Hawks rallied. UNA called both timeouts during a 7-1 Shorter run but could not stop the bleeding. After taking a 20-17 lead, Shorter closed out the set with another 5-2 spurt to even the overall match. Bradley had six kills in the game but no other UNA player had more than three.

Another early run helped UNA grab control in the third set. The Lions led 16-11 before Shorter scored five straight points to close the gap to a single point. Gorey got three kills down the stretch to extend the lead to 21-17 and North Alabama got the final point on a kill by Fomina.

Shorter (21-5) picked up the most one-sided win of the match in the fourth set. The Hawks hit .464 in the frame while holding UNA to just 12 kills and a .162 clip.

North Alabama never trailed in the fifth-and-final set. The Lions scored the first three points of the game and maintained at least a two-point lead the rest of the way. Shorter called timeouts trailing at 5-1 and 11-5 but could not catch up.

Gorey finished with 16 kills for North Alabama. Jessica Austin also reached double figures with 10 kills on the day. Andrea De Leon added 58 assists. Defensively, Ashtyn Kapovich had 26 digs while Shantel Federick added 14 digs for the Lions.