SHAWNEE, Okla. – SWOSU Volleyball earned a split against two tough opponents on Saturday afternoon at the GAC-MIAA Crossover in Shawnee. The Dawgs picked up a hard-fought five-set win over Emporia State in the opener, then won the first set against Missouri Western before succumbing to the Griffons in four.
SWOSU is now 2-8 on the year heading into Great American Conference play, which begins on Tuesday evening at Southern Nazarene.
SWOSU 3, Emporia State 2
Box Score (html)
Carly Zak put down a season-high 23 kills and hit .300 in the opener as SWOSU won the first two sets against Emporia State and controlled the fifth set to earn the victory. The Dawgs hit .279 as a team, getting offense from a variety of sources, including a season-best 11 service aces against just six service errors to help overcome a blocking deficit of seven-to-one for the match.
Addie Aman led SWOSU with five service aces and no errors, while
Paige Holt,
Kaitlyn Dillon and
Blair Dressendorfer each had two aces apiece. Kelsi Schmidberger hit .349 for the match with 12 kills and Holt was also hitting effectively with eight kills and a .208 percentage. Aman and Dressendorfer also scored points at the net with seven and six kills, respectively.
Kayla Hebert added her third double-double in the last five matches by leading the Dawgs with 47 assists and 16 digs.
The victory marked the first in program history for the Bulldogs over Emporia State, a team that SWOSU was previously 0-3 against all-time.
Missouri Western 3, SWOSU 1
Box Score (html)
Momentum carried over for the Bulldogs in their first set against Missouri Western, with SWOSU hitting an astounding .440 with 13 kills and just two kills as the Dawgs won the set 25-19 to take an early lead. From that point on, however, the Griffons took control and won the final sets 25-12, 25-16 and 25-22 to win the match in four.
Carly Zak again did the bulk of the damage offensively with 17 kills, while
Kelsi Schmidtberger had seven and
Paige Holt added six. SWOSU put down 40 kills for the match and limited their hitting errors to 10, finishing with a .270 hitting percentage.
SWOSU got 32 assists and seven digs from
Kayla Hebert, who along with
Blair Dressendorfer had two service aces apiece.
Kaitlyn Dillon had a team-high 14 digs in the match, while Hebert and Schmidtberger each had two blocks.
