ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – SWOSU Volleyball went the distance for the third time this week, this time in a 3-2 victory over Ouachita Baptist on Friday evening. The victory concludes a perfect 2-0 conference road trip across state lines to Arkansas and is SWOSU's second straight fifth-set victory in as many days after also defeating Henderson State by that same score on Thursday.
The Bulldogs, 10-5 and 5-2 in the GAC, finish the week out strong after being on the wrong end of a 'five-setter' to start the week on Tuesday against Oklahoma Baptist. SWOSU is now 5-2 this season when the match goes the distance.
SWOSU started out very slow against Ouachita, perhaps still recovering from the previous night's five-set drama. The Dawgs hit in the negatives in the opening frame and had more errors, 10, than kills, 9. For the second night in a row, they trailed 1-0 early.
That was quickly shaken off in the second set where SWOSU bounced back to post the highest hitting percentage of the match at .310. Leading 17-16, they rattled off five of the next six points to finally take control of the set and went on to knot things up at 1-1.
Trailing 17-14 in set three, a giant 6-0 run put SWOSU back in the driver's seat and they managed to fend off the Tigers late push and claim another set win.
The Bulldogs tried their best to overcome an 8-2 deficit in the fourth but ran out of points to work with and dropped the fourth set 25-22, setting up, for the third time this week, yet another fifth and deciding set.
A solid 3-0 start to the fifth proved to be the difference maker as SWOSU went on to win by that same margin, 15-12. They nearly matched that .310 hitting mark from the second set, helping propel them to take the match.
Even better news for SWOSU was overcoming a .240 Ouachita hitting percentage in the match. That's the third highest opponent percentage of the season, yet the Bulldogs found a way to overcome it and get a victory. SWOSU finished at .205 – their eighth time this season getting over the .200 threshold.
Taryn Galt gave the squad a huge lift thanks to an extremely efficient .520 attack percentage and a team-leading 13 kills which marks her season high and is one shy of tying her career best. Other offensive contributors were Zoey Sparks, Maicee Morgan, and Lacy Mott who all added 11 kills.
Jada Permenter's 27 digs is the second most she's had this season. The defense got 14 assisted blocks on the night, nine of which came from the Hailey Smith and Zoey Sparks duo.
Up next for the team is a non-conference affair against Cameron in Lawton on Tuesday, October 10. From there, SWOSU will return home to host GAC foes Arkansas Tech and league-leading Harding on Thursday and Friday of the same week.
