HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Postseason play has arrived and, for the seventh straight season, that means that SWOSU Volleyball is headed to Hot Springs, Arkansas, for the Great American Conference Championship Tournament.
 
With a 12-4 record in conference play, SWOSU tied for second in the final league standings but dropped to the No. 3-seed due to a tiebreaker. First up for the Bulldogs is a quarterfinal matchup with Harding, the No-6 seed in the tournament after finishing 10-6 in league play. SWOSU won this year's meeting between the program's 3-1 in Searcy on October 19th behind 15 kills from Maicee Morgan and 14 from Jenny Tackett. That win was SWOSU's second all-time victory over the Lady Bisons at Rhodes-Reaves Field House.
 

Statistical Comparison	Harding	GAC Rank	SWOSU	GAC Rank
Kills	13.66/set	1st	12.29/set	4th
Hitting %	0.217	2nd	0.178	6th
Opp. Hitting %	0.162	5th	0.160	4th
Assists	12.57/set	2nd	11.64/set	4th
Blocks	2.19/set	3rd	1.51/set	9th
Service Aces	1.76/set	1st	1.65/set	3rd
Digs	18.63/set	2nd	18.70/set	1st

 
SWOSU has an all-time record of 6-7 at the GAC Tournament, but they're 0-3 all-time against Harding in the event, having been eliminated by the Lady Bisons in 2011, 2012 and 2017. In each prior meeting, however, SWOSU was the lower-seeded team. The Bulldogs are 4-9 against Harding since the formation of the Great American Conference, but all four victories have come within the last six meetings and SWOSU has defeated the Lady Bisons in each of the past two seasons.
 
Full results from SWOSU's previous GAC Tournament appearances are below:
 
2011: November 11-12; Russellville, Ark.
    Nov. 11: (2) Harding def. (7) SWOSU 3-0
2012: November 15-17; Searcy, Ark.
    Nov. 15: (4) SWOSU def. (5) Ouachita Baptist 3-1
    Nov. 16: (1) Harding def. (4) SWOSU 3-2
2013: November 21-23; Hot Springs, Ark.
    Nov. 21: (4) Ouachita Baptist def. (5) SWOSU 3-2
2014: November 13-15; Hot Springs, Ark.
    Nov. 13: (1) Arkansas Tech def. (8) SWOSU 3-0
2015: November 19-21; Hot Springs, Ark.
    Nov. 19: (3) SWOSU def. (6) Northwestern Okla. 3-1
    Nov. 20: (3) SWOSU def. (2) Southern Nazarene 3-0
    Nov. 21: (3) SWOSU def. (4) Southern Arkansas 3-1
2016: November 17-19; Hot Springs, Ark.
    Nov. 17: (5) SWOSU def. (4) Arkansas Tech 3-1
    Nov. 18: (8) Southeastern Okla. def. (5) SWOSU 3-1
2017: November 16-18; Hot Springs, Ark.
    Nov. 16: (2) Harding def. (7) SWOSU 3-1
2018: November 8-10; Hot Springs, Ark.
   Nov. 8: (2) SWOSU def. (7) Southern Nazarene, 3-1
   Nov. 9: (3) Henderson State def. (2) SWOSU, 3-1
 
SWOSU is led offensively by freshman outside hitter Maicee Morgan, one of six different Bulldog attackers with more than 100 kills to their credit. Morgan has put down 336 kills, an average of 3.43 per set, while hitting with an attack percentage of .211. The Bulldogs have also gotten strong contributions in the middle, where Brylee Burroughs is averaging 1.90 kills per set while hitting .233 and Sofia Gruden has 1.89 kills per set with a hitting percentage of .213. Emily Wood and Chezney Nielsen have split time at the other outside position and each is averaging better than 2.0 kills per set while Jenny Tackett has 183 kills while hitting .159 from the right side.
 
Senior libero Kaitlyn Dillon is one of four players in conference history with more than 2,000 career digs and she enters the tournament with 2,318 career digs, eighth-most among active players in NCAA Division II. This season, she's ranked second in the league with an average of 5.23 digs per set and 10th with 34 service aces. SWOSU setter Allie Hoang is a two-time GAC Setter of the Week this year and she's ranked second in the league with 9.90 assists per set while leading the league with 38 service aces, an average of 0.41 per set.
 
SWOSU is 4-4 all-time in the quarterfinal round of the GAC Tournament, which includes a 3-1 victory over Southern Nazarene last season. In their only other time claiming the No. 3-seed in the tournament, SWOSU defeated Northwestern Oklahoma State, Southern Nazarene and Southern Arkansas to claim the 2015 GAC Tournament Championship.
 
All games of the 2019 GAC Volleyball Championships will be broadcast live on the GAC Sports Network with other live follow links available at SWOSUAthletics.com.