The top-seeded Talladega College Tornadoes will play for the HBCU Athletic Conference Championship after sweeping Philander Smith University, 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-18).

Franchesca Rivas led all players with 15 kills, adding 6 digs and 2 blocks on the afternoon, while Josephine Gates was second with 10 kills and led all players with 8 blocks. Giovana Costarelli and Nuria Santos combined for 34 assists on Talladega's 40 kills, with Costarelli adding 3 kills and 3 blocks to her stat line. Briyith Echeverri posted a game-high 21 digs with Stella Lukaszuk being the only other Talladega player with double-digit digs.

Talladega raced out to a 9-3 lead in the opening set before a mini run by Philander Smith trimmed it to just three points on a couple of occasions, the last coming with Talladega leading 12-9. The Tornadoes scored 10 of the next 15 points to stretch their lead to 22-14 before finishing off the set, 25-18.

Set Two had Talladega looking up at Philander Smith for almost the entire set as Philander Smith took an early 4-1 lead and expanded that advantage to as many as five points, at 16-11, before Talladega began their comeback. Rivas had three kills during a 4-1 run, making it 17-15, then, after a trio of errors from Philander Smith a few moments later, Talladega had their first lead of the set, pulling ahead 21-20. Philander Smith tied the set at 21-21, but Talladega scored 4 of the next 5 points, with Rivas putting the exclamation point on a 25-22 set victory.

The third set featured a pair of runs from Talladega early on that set the tone for the rest of the set. After dropping the first two points of the set, the Tornadoes went on a 6-1 run to take a 6-3 lead. After Philander Smith made it 7-6 in favor of Talladega, the Tornadoes used another substantial scoring run, this one a 9-1 stretch to break open a 16-7 advantage. Talladega withstood a brief spurt from Philander Smith that brought the score to 18-14, but Talladega used kills by Rivas and Re'na Ashley plus a pair of attacking errors to re-establish an eight-point advantage, 22-14, before closing out the straight-set win with a 25-18 third set.

Talladega will play for the 2024 HBCUAC Volleyball Championship on Wednesday, November 13th at 12:00 p.m. CT.