DURANT, Okla. – SWOSU Volleyball dropped the first set at Southeastern Oklahoma State, but stormed back to win the next three and defeat the Savage Storm in four sets on Thursday evening at Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
The Bulldogs started slowly in the first, falling in a 11-2 hole before mounting a furious rally late in the set. SWOSU got within one point on multiple occasions, including at 24-23 before the Savage Storm finished it off at 25-23 to take the set and a 1-0 lead.
Building on the momentum of their comeback, SWOSU rushed out to a 5-0 lead in the second set and never looked back as they ran away with a 25-12 win in the set. The third set followed a similar script with SWOSU scoring the first four points and leading wire-to-wire while hitting .323 with 12 kills on their way to a 25-14 victory. The fourth and final set saw two ties and two lead changes, but SWOSU took the lead for good at 5-4 and held off the Savage Storm the rest of the way.
For the match, SWOSU had 37 kills and a .154 attack percentage but had significant advantages at the service line and at the net. The Bulldogs had 12 service aces compared to 2 for Southeastern and they out-blocked the Savage Storm 9-3. Southeastern had more kills (40-37) and digs (82-80), but SWOSU forced the Savage Storm into 37 attack errors and took advantage of eight service errors by the home team.
Individually,
Sofia Gruden led the way with 11 kills and six blocks while SWOSU got 10 kills from
Maicee Morgan.
Brylee Burroughs added eight kills and three blocks and
Jenny Tackett had three kills and five blocks.
Emily Wood came in off the bench to record a career-best 19 digs in addition to five kills and three other players had a double-digit dig total, with
Kaitlyn Dillon recording 16,
Ashley Jekel adding 12 and
Sophia DeSantiago had 11.
With the win, SWOSU evens their record at 6-6 on the year and they move above .500 in Great American Conference play at 2-1. Next up for the Dawgs is a non-conference home match against Texas A&M-Kingsville on Monday at 4:00 pm inside the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.
