GREAT AMERICAN CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINALS
(5) Southwestern Oklahoma State vs. (4) Ouachita Baptist
Thursday, November 21, 7:30 pm
Hot Springs, Ark. (Summit Arena)
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Weekly Notes (pdf)
GAC Tournament Homepage
Tournament Bracket (pdf)
Setting the Scene
Postseason play opens up on Thursday evening for the fifth-seeded SWOSU volleyball team as the Bulldogs face No. 4 seed Ouachita Baptist in the quarterfinals of the Great American Conference postseason tournament. The tournament is being held at a neutral site – Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Ark. – for the first time after the regular season champion hosted it the past two years.
In Ouachita Baptist, the Bulldogs will face a team that came from behind to score a 3-2 victory in Weatherford in the team's only meeting this season. The two teams, along with East Central, tied for fourth place in the GAC standings, but SWOSU fell to the fifth seed due to tiebreakers.
The Coaches
Josh Collins is in his second season as the head volleyball coach at SWOSU after serving as an assistant the previous seven seasons. He has led the Bulldogs to a fourth-place GAC finish in both of his first two seasons and he has a current record of 26-40 with an 18-10 mark in GAC contests. Prior to last season, SWOSU volleyball had never finished higher than 7th in the conference standings in any season.
Ouachita Baptist alum, Danny Prescott, is in his ninth season as the Tigers head coach. In his time at OBU, Prescott has accumulated a record of 126-168.
Tournament Time
SWOSU will be making their third consecutive appearance in the Great American Conference tournament with a 1-2 record all-time at the event. A 3-1 victory over Ouachita Baptist in the quarterfinals of last year's tournament was the first postseason victory in SWOSU volleyball history. After defeating OBU, the Bulldogs were eliminated in the semifinals of the tournament by top-seed and host Harding, the same team that eliminated SWOSU at the tournament in 2011.
Last Time Out
The SWOSU volleyball team wrapped up the regular season portion of the 2013 season on Senior Day Saturday afternoon at Rankin Williams Fieldhouse against Midwestern State.
Alison Cole led the way with 11 kills and a .474 hitting percentage after committing just two hitting errors.
Joey Collins was close behind, finishing with eight kills while
Christina Darras had four kills and committed just one error.
Breann Whitaker finished with 30 assists in the match while Jacobson led SWOSU with a team-high seven digs. The Bulldogs recorded eight blocks in the match with
Kiley Brennfoerder leading the way with five while Darras finished with four.
Final Standings
Just two games separated third-through-eighth places in the Great American Conference standings, with SWOSU falling write in the middle of that group. The Bulldogs tied with East Central and Ouachita Baptist for fourth place at 8-6, securing their second consecutive winning season in conference play. Harding was a runaway winner of the GAC at 14-0, followed by 12-2 Southern Nazarene, who is ineligible to compete at the conference tournament as they continue reclassifying to NCAA Division II. Arkansas Tech finished third at 9-5, claiming the number two seed, followed by the three-way tie for fourth.
Last Time vs. Ouachita Baptist
With a two-set lead and up 8-2 to open the third set, it appeared that the Southwestern Oklahoma State University volleyball was going to cruise to a second straight three-set victory on Saturday afternoon.
Ouachita Baptist, however, had other plans and rallied back to take the third set 25-22 and eventually claim the match with a comeback in the fifth set. Scores of the set were 25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 14-16.
SWOSU was in control for most of the fifth set, leading 8-5 at the turn and quickly pushing that lead to 11-5 and forcing an OBU timeout. The Bulldogs earned four match points by taking a 14-10 lead after an error on the Tigers, but OBU responded with six consecutive points, including back-to-back blocks to end the match.
Record Setters
One significant improvement for the 2013 edition of SWOSU volleyball has been at the net, where the Bulldogs recently set a new single-season school record for total blocks in a season. SWOSU has sent back a total of 239 attack attempts with 44 of them being solo blocks and 390 assisted. The assist and total block numbers are new school records and the average of 1.94 blocks per set is on pace to do the same.
Anchoring the Bulldogs blocking efforts have been middle hitters
Alison Cole and
Kiley Brennfoerder. Cole has set a new single-season record for blocks with 130 (24 solo, 106 assist) and she is on pace to set a new record with 1.06 blocks per set, a mark that ranks her second in the GAC.
With three more blocks, Brennfoerder would become the sixth player in school history with 100 blocks in a season. She has 97 blocks (15 solo, 82 assist) for the year, ranking seventh in the GAC with 0.84 per set.
Neutral Site
Last summer, the Great American Conference announced that the GAC Volleyball Championships will be held in Hot Springs, Ark., and played at the Summit Arena in 2013 and 2014.
Volleyball becomes the latest GAC sport to move its championship to a neutral site, joining men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's golf, baseball and softball. Hot Springs Country Club has served as the venue for the 2012 and 2013 GAC Men's and Women's Golf Championships and will again host on its two courses in 2014.
