Box Score (html)
WEATHERFORD, Okla. – For the second consecutive night, the SWOSU Volleyball team came out victorious in a five-set match after defeating Lubbock Christian 3-2 (25-18, 19-25, 22-25, 25-18, 15-11) on Saturday evening at the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.
SWOSU hit well the entire match, finishing with a hitting percentage of .200 or higher in each set, but they were undone by service errors and aces from Lubbock Christian in the second and third sets. The Dawgs bounced back in the fourth set with their best hitting performance, putting down 19 kills with five errors on 43 swings and brought back the momentum to the home side as the match headed for the deciding set.
In the fifth set, SWOSU fell behind by scores of 2-0 and 4-1 before making a push to tie the set at 4-4 thanks to a block from
Carly Zak and
Paige Holt followed by a kill by Zak. The final set was tied four times with the final one coming at 10-all before another kill from Zak and a service ace by
Lindsey McCauley gave the Bulldogs separation and forced the Lady Chaps to call for time down 12-10.
For the second straight night, the Dawgs turned to Zak as their closer and the senior delivered with kills on the final three points, eclipsing the 1,500-kill mark for her career on the same day she became the Great American Conference's all-time leader in kills. Zak led the Bulldogs with 24 kills, four digs and three assists blocks while hitting .382 for the match with three hitting errors.
"What a great weekend," SWOSU Head Coach
Josh Collins said following the match, the Bulldogs third victory in the past two days. "We played three really tough opponents, very talented teams and our kids fought and responded to adversity well. I feel like we showed a lot of character and I think that bodes well for us moving forward."
In addition to Zak's offensive output,
DeLayni Fine put down a career-high 14 kills and hit .276 for the match while
Kelsi Schmidtberger added 12 kills and
Paige Holt had nine kills on 27 swings with just one hitting error.
Kayla Hebert directed the show with 56 assists to go along with eight digs. SWOSU outblocked Lubbock Christian 9-to-6, led by Holt, who set a new career high with eight blocks (one solo, seven assist).
Three players reached double figures in digs despite Lubbock Christian winning that category on the night with a 74-to-71 advantage.
Lindsey McCauley led the team with 18 digs, followed by
Kaitlyn Dillon with 14 and
Ariana Olson with 11.
With their three-game winning streak, the Bulldogs have improved to 8-13 on the year heading into a road trip next weekend to Arkansas. SWOSU's next action comes on Friday night with a trip to Henderson State for a match beginning at 6:00 pm.
