LUBBOCK, Texas – SWOSU Volleyball opened the Lubbock Christian Chap Classic an even 1-1 on Friday, defeating Texas Women's in the first game of the day before falling to Colorado Mesa in the afternoon.
The Bulldogs (2-4) will be back on the court Saturday, Sept. 9 against Colorado Christian at 9 am and again at 1 pm against Eastern New Mexico.
SWOSU 3, Texas Women's 2
25-23, 25-27, 21-25, 25-20, 15-13
Box Score
Five sets were decided by a total of 15 points in SWOSU's opening game on Friday morning against Texas Women's. The Bulldogs jumped out to a quick one-set lead out of the gate, but dropped sets two and three and fell behind 2-1 in the match.
In the fourth set, the Bulldogs ripped off eight-consecutive points in the middle stages to gain control and play with breathing room for the remainder of the frame.
Lindsey McCauley led the run, serving three aces while SWOSU collected a pair of kills from
Allison Russell and
Danusia Sipa Borgeaud and took advantage of three Pioneer errors. Winning 20-8, the Dawgs would allow TWU to streak together two spurts but the lead proved to be too large and SWOSU knotted up the match at 2-2 and force a decisive fifth set.
The final set featured five lead changes and five ties in a back-and-forth thriller.
DeLayni Fine took over in the later stages and accounted for six kills out of the nine SWOSU slammed home, including four of the final five points of the set.
Fine and Borgeaud led the team with 16 kills overall, while
JaLisa Hollingshed and
Addie Aman each added 10 themselves.
Kaitlyn Dillon dug 25 balls on defense and
Kodee Avery assisted on 55 points at setter.
Colorado Mesa 3, SWOSU 1
15-25, 25-21, 16-25, 23-25
Box Score
SWOSU sophomore
Valerie Vermillion hit home 12 kills in four sets, but was the only Bulldog to post double-digit kills in the contest. For the match, the Dawgs managed to only collect 42 kills compared to Mesa's 64.
Lacking offensive output, SWOSU dropped sets one and three by scores of 25-15 and 25-16, falling behind 2-1 to CMU. The second set was by far the best for SWOSU, who controlled the pace from nearly start to finish after jumping out to leads of 10-1 and 18-8, despite topping the Mavericks by just four points in the final score.
In what would be the final set in the fourth, both teams went kill for kill as no side led by more than four points the entire way. Knotted at 22-22, it was Mesa who got the final word by serving an ace followed by a SWOSU hitting error to get to match point. The Bulldogs got one back, but at 24-23 the Mavericks collected the game-ending kill to win in four sets.
Four players dug 12 or more balls in the contest, led by
Kaitlyn Dillon with 15.
Kodee Avery collected 35 assists while
JaLisa Hollingshed and
Danusia Sipa Borgeaud had nine blocking assists combined between the two.
