Box Score (html)
DURANT, Okla. – Under the Friday Night Lights inside Bloomer Sullivan Gym in Durant, the SWOSU Volleyball team won the fourth and fifth sets to defeat Southeastern Oklahoma State 3-2 and earn the Bulldogs first Great American Conference win of the season. Scores of the sets on Friday evening were 20-25, 25-22, 24-26, 25-20, 15-8.
SWOSU and Southeastern split the opening two sets, with the Savage Storm breaking away 25-20 in the first before the Bulldogs controlled the second set and put it away at 25-22. SE rushed out to a 6-1 lead in the third, but SWOSU rallied and tied the set at 11-all before taking an 18-16 lead a little later in the set. The teams were tied four times in the final points and the Dawgs had set point at 24-23 before the Storm scored three straight points and took the set 26-24 for a 2-1 lead in the match.
With their backs against the wall, SWOSU came out swinging in the fourth set and hit .233 for the set with 14 kills against four hitting errors. The bulk of the advantage came during the serve of
Blair Dressendorfer, who had two aces during a six-point run that saw SWOSU double up the Storm 12-6 early in the set. Southeastern rallied and got within one point at 19-18, but the Bulldogs went out and took the set with four big kills down the stretch, getting two from
Carly Zak and one from
Paige Holt before the clincher from Dressendorfer.
That momentum remained on the side of the Bulldogs in the deciding fifth set, with two kills from Zak and an assist block from Holt and
DeLayni Fine giving SWOSU a 5-1 lead before SE called for time. The teams traded kills through the turn and Dressendorfer's serve led to another run that put the Bulldogs in control at 13-5. Southeastern scored three more points, but on the second match point,
Kodee Avery found Zak on the outside and the senior found a crease in the defense for her 21st kill of the night to end the match.
While Zak was stellar offensively with 21 kills and a .333 hitting percentage, she also turned in one of her top defensive performances with a career-best 21 digs and two blocks. She was aided by a balanced Bulldog offensive attack that saw
Kelsi Schmidtberger add 12 kills on 27 swings and
DeLayni Fine put down 11 kills while seeing the first extended action of her junior season.
Blair Dressendorfer and
Paige Holt had eight kills apiece, with Dressendorfer also serving up a career-high four aces.
Kayla Hebert fell one dig shy of a double-double with 28 assists and nine digs while sharing time with
Kodee Avery, who set her career-high with 26 assists and added seven digs.
Kaitlyn Dillon held down the back line with a team-high 24 digs and six different players combined to help SWOSU to a 9-to-8 advantage in blocks.
"I'm really pleased with the energy and effort put forth by our team tonight," SWOSU Head Coach
Josh Collins said. "Winning on the road during conference play is difficult enough, but I'm very proud of the way we competed after falling behind following the third set. It's good to get a conference win under our belt, but there's no time to celebrate because we need to get ready to play again tomorrow."
SWOSU (3-10, 1-2 GAC) earns their first conference victory of the young season and they will look to even their GAC record on Saturday afternoon, when they take on East Central at 2:00 pm in Ada.
