Box Score (html)
WEATHERFORD, Okla. – The SWOSU volleyball team scored four of the final five points in a thrilling fifth set to defeat East Central 3-2 on Tuesday night at the Pioneer Cellular Event Center. SWOSU won the match by scores of 25-22, 25-16, 26-28, 20-25, 15-13.
SWOSU won the first two sets quickly and nearly put the Tigers away in the third, pushing the set to extra points after trailing 24-20 and staving off four set points. ECU would eventually take the set 28-26 and lead throughout to take the fourth set before winning 25-20 to force the deciding 15-point set.
East Central won the first two points of the set before SWOSU got on the board with back-to-back blocks from
Brandy Mader and
Kiley Brennfoerder.
Carly Zak had three of her match-high 22 kills to keep things close in the middle points of the set before a pair of ECU errors gave SWOSU an 8-6 lead at the turn.
The teams went back and forth down the stretch with SWOSU building a 9-7 lead before ECU scored three straight points to take a 10-9 lead before
Joey Collins got the Bulldogs tied with a big kill. The Bulldogs would take an 11-10 lead before ECU scored twice on kills from Hayley Gerken, forcing a SWOSU timeout.
Brennfoerder came through with a clutch kill to tie the match at 12-12 before an ECU attack error gave SWOSU the lead and forced ECU to call their first timeout of the set.
Kaila Lancaster was called for a handling error to tie things again at 13-13 before Brennfoerder and Zak combined for a block to give the Bulldogs match point and force another ECU timeout. With Brennfoerder serving for the match, East Central committing a ball handling error, ending the set at 15-13 and the match at 3-2 in favor of the home team.
The lengthy, exciting match led to several big numbers from SWOSU, but none bigger than the numbers at the net. SWOSU dominated up front, finishing with 16 blocks, the second-most in a match in school history, behind Brennfoerder who sent back 12 attempts (2 solo, 10 assist), another mark that ranks second in SWOSU volleyball history for a match.
Shayne Haley had five assist blocks – all in the first set – while Zak and
Taylor VanderWerff each added four.
Zak led the Bulldogs offensively with 22 kills while committing just three hitting errors in 58 attack attempts for a .328 hitting percentage. Her kills total is the fourth-most in a match at SWOSU and her attempts total ranks fifth. With her effort, Zak has entered SWOSU's top ten all-time list for kills with 474 in just over one year of play.
Collins added 14 kills for the Bulldogs while VanderWerff (8), Haley (7) and Brennfoerder (6) also contributed offensively. Mader reset her career high in assists after dishing out 52 in the match to go along with nine digs and three blocks. Lancaster had a match-high 28 digs while Haley added a career-high 16 and
Kenya Williams had 13.
With the win, SWOSU has pushed their win streak to three and improved to 3-4 (2-0 GAC) heading into a triangular match on Friday when they will face St. Edward's and Panhandle State in Goodwell, Okla.
