ADA, Okla. – SWOSU Volleyball saw its impressive six game winning streak come to an end at the hands of the East Central on Friday night, as the Bulldogs were downed 3-2.
 
The match had a strange feel to it from the beginning, and the Bulldog offense had a hard time finding their rhythm in this one. East Central seemed to find the empty space in the Bulldog's defensive line as well, and rode that efficient attack to a first set win.
 
The next two sets looked a lot more like the SWOSU team we've seen over the past two weeks. Freshman outside hitter Lacy Mott entered the game and absolutely dominated the second set. She had six kills on eleven total attacks with only one error in the frame. She would finish the game with a season high 13 kills to her name.
 
It seemed that the Dawgs had found some momentum and they carried it into the third. The team had one of their most efficient sets of the season to date offensively, finishing off 16 kills with only one error for a team hitting percentage of .429.
 
That efficient was spearheaded by Markenzie Benoit, who came alive in the third. She put away four kills with no errors while also contributing five blocks in the set. This team always seems to elevate to another level when she is at the peak of her powers.
 
SWOSU continued that positive momentum into the fourth, and jumped out to an early 6-1 lead. But East Central took advantage of some costly errors to get back in it, and went on a five-point run of their own to even the set count at two apiece.
 
Almost everything in the fifth went the Tigers way, and East Central would go on to win the match. It was the Bulldogs first loss in conference play this year.
 
Head Coach Josh Collins will hope the experience gained by his team will serve them well going forward. Collins had fourteen different girls see action tonight, the most of any game so far this season. That included the SWOSU debut of Freshman middle hitter Zoey Sparks.
 
The Bulldogs move to 6-5 on the season and 2-1 in conference play. They will be awfully busy next week with three matches in the Pioneer Cellular Event Center with Northwestern Oklahoma State coming down on Tuesday at 7:00 pm, Southern Nazarene on Thursday at 7:00 pm, and a non-conference match with Randall to finish the week off on Saturday at 11:00 am.