Box Score (html)
 
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The SWOSU Volleyball team advanced to the semifinals of the Great American Conference Tournament with a 3-1 victory over Southern Nazarene on Thursday afternoon at Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs.
 
SWOSU tied a tournament record with 11 service aces and had four players with 10 or more kills in the match. The Bulldogs finished the match with 60 kills and 16 attack errors in the match, which was good for a hitting percentage of .293 while they limited the Crimson Storm to an attack clip of .191.
 
The Bulldogs led for most of the opening set before SNU gained the momentum and finished the set on a 9-2 run to take the set 25-23 and the early 1-0 lead. SWOSU quickly responded and led wire-to-wire in the second set, putting down 19 kills and hitting .250 to win the set 25-20 and knot the score at 1-1.
 
The third set of the match was back-and-forth in the early going, but SWOSU used two big runs to pull away and win the set. SWOSU scored five straight points on the service of Allie Hoang, building an 18-10 lead, but SNU would answer with five points of their own, making it 18-15. Jenny Tackett put away one of her career-high 15 kills to get the momentum back to the Dawgs and Klemson Lancaster would serve two aces as part of a 6-0 run to end the set at 25-15.
 
Lancaster rotated in to serve early in the fourth set and SWOSU again scored six points before SNU was able to side out, allowing the Dawgs to build an early 8-2 advantage in the set. SWOSU would not allow SNU to get any close than four points the rest of the set and put the match away with an ace by Allie Hoang at 25-17.
 
Jenny Tackett was a force throughout the match, tying her career high with 15 kills against one hitting error for an incredible hitting percentage of .609 for the match. Elizabeth McVicker had an efficient 12 kills while hitting .417 and Emily Holm added 12 kills on the outside. Danusia Sipa Borgeaud notched a double-double, putting away 11 kills to go along with 12 digs. Sofia Gruden was one kill shy of reaching double figures, recording nine kills while hitting .438 for the match and adding a team-leading seven blocks.
 
Allie Hoang was magnificent in putting her hitters in position to score and she finished with 52 assists – a season-high for assists in a four-set match – and 14 digs for her 17th double-double of the season. Kaitlyn Dillon added 28 digs to her season total, while also collecting three assists. Kodee Avery set a new career-high with five service aces, while Klemson Lancaster added four to help SWOSU tie the GAC Tournament record for aces with 11.
 
"I was very proud of our response to early adversity today," SWOSU Head Coach Josh Collins said. "Southern Nazarene had a great game plan coming into the match and really made us adapt. I thought our offense was consistent from the start with a great balanced and dynamic attack. Once we settled in and made some changes, I felt like our defense did some great things against a strong offensive team."

With the win, SWOSU advances to the semifinals of the GAC Tournament for the fourth time in program history and third time in the past four years. Next up for SWOSU is a matchup with No. 3-seed Henderson State on Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm.