Box Score (html)
ALVA, Okla. – SWOSU Volleyball trailed 23-21 in the third set, but scored the final four points in their rivalry match with Northwestern Oklahoma State to win the set 25-23 and complete a three-set sweep of the Rangers on Thursday evening at Percefull Fieldhouse.
Kelsi Schmidtberger and
Jill Green combined for eight kills with no errors in the opening set and
Carly Zak added three with one error as the Bulldogs hit .355 and took the early lead 25-20. The Bulldogs turned a 15-13 deficit into a 19-15 lead on the serve of Zak midway through the set and pulled ahead before
Kaitlyn Dillon ended the set with a service ace on set point.
The second set was very back-and-forth with 14 ties and six lead changes before the Dawgs pulled away late. Northwestern tied the set at 20-all before Schmidtberger and Zak had kills that sandwiched another ace by Dillon as SWOSU went up 23-21. Two service errors by the Rangers gave the Bulldogs their final two points and the 2-0 lead heading into intermission.
The third, and ultimately deciding, set was also hotly contested with SWOSU having to play from behind. The Rangers reached double figures first and led 10-5 before SWOSU closed to within one at 10-9 on a service ace from
DeLayni Fine. Northwestern responded, however, and eventually pushed their lead back to three on multiple occasions, the last at 22-19, after forcing the Bulldogs to call a timeout.
Northwestern would run their lead to 23-21 on a kill by Hayley Brattain, but an assist block by Schmidtberger and Fine tied the set at 23-all and forced the Rangers to call for time. After an attack error by NWOSU, Green ended the match at 25-23 with her seventh kill of the night.
Carly Zak finished the match with 13 kills and 18 digs, ending the regular season with a new single-season school record of 469 kills.
Kayla Hebert added another double-double to her school record total, finishing with 34 assists and 10 digs while
Kaitlyn Dillon totaled 14 digs, giving her 450 for the season, SWOSU's seventh-best single-season total.
Kelsi Schmidtberger had nine kills and just one attack error, hitting .500 for the match to go along with two blocks while
Paige Holt led the Dawgs with three blocks.
"Each time we come to Northwestern, we know we're going to play in a hostile environment and I think our team handled that very well tonight," SWOSU Head Coach
Josh Collins said. "This is a good note to end the regular season on and give us some momentum to take to Hot Springs."
With the victory, SWOSU finishes the regular season 13-16 overall and 9-7 in Great American Conference matches. The Bulldogs have earned the No. 5-seed in the upcoming GAC Tournament and they will be pitted against No. 4-seed Arkansas Tech in the tournament quarterfinals next Thursday in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
