ROME, Ga. – Getting off to a fast start is something the team has had a hard time achieving lately. The Lady Hawks, however, certainly know how to put the sluggishness behind them.

After finding themselves in an immediate hole when they dropped the first set of their Gulf South Conference Tournament showdown with Alabama-Huntsville, the No. 4-seeded Lady Hawks charged back to sweep the next three sets and hand the No. 5 Chargers a 3-1 defeat Tuesday night at the Winthrop-King Centre in front of the largest crowd to watch a home match this season at Shorter.

"We were determined to come out and have a good first set," Shorter head coach Jon Moseley said about how focused the Lady Hawks were to avoid the slow start. "It's something that's happened to us a lot this year but I can't figure out what's going on.

"When you play a good team," he added, "you have to have a good start. But it was an exciting finish. They settled down and made the plays at the end."

The victory improves the Lady Hawks to 17-10 overall for the season and advances them into the tournament semifinals Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (CT) against this year's regular-season champions, No. 20-ranked West Florida, on the Argos home court where they're 14-1 in Pensacola, Fla.

Against UAH (19-15), Shorter found itself quickly staring at a 9-1 deficit in the opening set before seeing Huntsville claim a 25-14 decision.

Shorter, however, shook off the setback and took command, took the lead (10-9) for good thanks to back-to-back blocks by Tiffani Estep and never looked back with Morgan Cleveland taking a pass from Dena Pierce and recording a kill to put the second set away, 25-17.

"We got our blocks going in the second set and it carried us through the match," said Moseley. "That was probably the difference in the match."

The Lady Hawks carried the momentum they had gained over to the third set and after taking a 14-12 advantage, outscored the Chargers 11-4 the rest of the way with the winning point coming via a block by BreAnna Thompson and Estep.

That set up what wound up being the fourth and deciding set and held a 21-115 lead, but UAH refused to back down and eventually rallied to tie the game, 22-22.

Both teams traded points until Madeline Munroe came up with a kill thanks to an assist by Cheyenne Frady to put Shorter in front 27-26 and Munroe turned in the match winner with her team-high 13^th kill of the match via a pass from Pierce.

Munroe led Shorter recording 13 kills while Thompson had nine; Pierce and Frady paced the team with 22 and 17 assists respectively; Cheyenne McLemore came up with 21 digs, Elizabeth Dowd had 14 and Cleveland added 13; and Estep and Alicia McClellan finished respectively with eight and six blocks each.

In the other semifinal Saturday in Pensacola, Valdosta – the Blazers defeated West Alabama in a first-round match – takes on No. 2 seed North Alabama at 3:30 p.m. (CT).

The championship will take place at West Florida on Sunday at 12:20 p.m. Central.