Box Score (html)
MAGNOLIA, Ark. – It took one of the most prolific offensive performances in school history for the SWOSU Volleyball team to come from behind and defeat Southern Arkansas 3-2 on Saturday at W.T. Watson Center. The Bulldogs won the first set, dropped the second two and won the final two with their backs against the wall to win the match by scores of 26-24, 20-25, 16-25, 25-17, 15-12.
Kayla Hebert set a new single-game SWOSU record with 67 assists, shattering the old record of 60 and tying the Great American Conference single-game record in the process. Her top offensive targets,
Carly Zak and
Jill Green, both set new career-highs for kills in the match, with Zak putting down 29 and Green coming through with 17. Zak's 29 kills is the most in the GAC this year and the second-most in a match in school history, while Green surpasses her previous career-high of 16 kills, set last season in the GAC Tournament Championship match against Southern Arkansas.
Finishing with a .294 hitting percentage, the Bulldogs had their top offensive match of the season and finished with 71 kills, the fifth-most by a SWOSU team in program history. The Bulldogs hit .300 or better in four sets and only struggled offensively during the third set, when they finished with nine kills and six hitting errors for a percentage of .079.
For as well as the Bulldogs played offensively, Southern Arkansas was a worthy adversary and outperformed SWOSU in terms of efficiency with a hitting percentage of .325, but the Dawgs had an advantage with seven more kills (71-to-64) and three points overall for the match (78-to-75). SAU also held the edge in digs (78-to-75) and blocks (5-to-1) while the teams tied with six service aces apiece.
"We have a resilient group of kids and we never quit fighting today once we got down," SWOSU Head Coach
Josh Collins said. "You can't say enough about the performance by our hitters today, but a lot of that credit goes to our defenders for passing the ball well and
Kayla Hebert for putting them in position to go make plays. This is a true team win and I couldn't be more proud of this group."
In the deciding fifth set, SWOSU fell behind 5-2 before Zak started and ended a 4-0 run that made it 6-5 in favor of the Dawgs. The teams would be tied at multiple points up to the point of 12-12, when SAU scored twice to tie the game and force a timeout from SWOSU. From that point on, Zak took over with two kills bookending a service ace from
Kaitlyn Dillon as the Bulldogs pulled away for the victory.
SWOSU (5-12, 3-4 GAC) ends their five-game road trip with a 3-2 record and they now return home for four matches in the next week, beginning on Monday night against nationally-ranked Central Oklahoma. First serve from the Pioneer Cellular Event Center will be at 7:00 pm.
