ADA, Okla. – Behind a career high 26 kills from Lacy Mott, SWOSU Volleyball captured a hard fought 3-2 victory over East Central on the opening night of Great American Conference play. Both sides battled to the end, but SWOSU was able to edge out ECU 16-14 in the final set to get the job done.
 
The win pushes SWOSU to 6-3 on the season and to 1-0 in the GAC heading into Thursday's home opener against Southeastern Oklahoma State. The Bulldogs claimed sets one, three, and five after dropping the second frame and narrowly getting beaten in the fourth.
 
Mott was stellar on offense. She racked up 26 kills, tied for third most in program history, and hit a blistering .382 to help lead the SWOSU attack. She backed up her offensive style with a double-double after also tallying 20 digs. Sets to Mott came courtesy of Terez Chavez and Cameron Turner, who combined for 55 assists. Turner also delivered a team high five aces at the service line which matches her career best.  
 
Mott was great, but so was freshman Jada Permenter. The Amarillo, Texas native collected a season best 31 digs to help anchor the defense at her libero spot.
 
As a unit, SWOSU hit .236 and limited East Central to .157 including two frames of a sub .025 mark.  
 
Both teams traded dominant sets to start the match. SWOSU grabbed a 1-0 lead and ECU immediately responded with a .417 hitting percentage in set two to knot things back up.
 
After the Dawgs held the Tigers to zeros in hitting in the third set, ECU snuck out the fourth to force the dramatic fifth. In that fourth, tied 23-23, the home side squeaked out two straight points which included a block to win it.
 
The fifth set continued the theme from the fourth and then tightened up even further. SWOSU trailed 4-1 and later at 13-11 but hung tough and found a way. Back-to-back Tiger errors knotted things back to 13-13 and Mott applied pressure from there with a kill to gain the lead and enter match point. The home side fought off one match point, but Mott came back with another kill, and it was followed up with a Taryn Galt kill to finally put the game to bed.   
 
Galt finished with nine kills – tied for second highest on the team with Maicee Morgan – and hit an efficient .571 on the night. None more important than that aforementioned final point.  
 
Hailey Smith finished with a team high four assisted blocks.
 
SWOSU moves to 3-1 in five set matches in 2023.