From SWOSU Sports Info.
Doug Self, Sports Information Director
ALVA – For the second straight season, the SWOSU Volleyball team went to five sets in their conference match at GAC rival Northwestern Oklahoma State, but Thursday’s regular season finale provided a different outcome than last season as SWOSU hit .435 in the deciding set and defeated the Rangers 3-2 in the back-and-forth battle at Percefull Fieldhouse.
SWOSU won the first (25-22) and third sets (25-19) to head to the fourth looking to close out the match, which looked like a good bet as the Dawgs took a 12-8 lead and led for the first half of the set. The Bulldogs continued to lead, eventually at 19-17, before Northwestern reeled off eight straight points, including seven kills, as they won the set 25-19 and forced the match to go the distance.
In the deciding fifth set, SWOSU never trailed, but they were tied twice as the Rangers evened the score and 2-2 and 3-3 before the Bulldogs pulled away. Carly Zak scored SWOSU’s first three points on kills before Jill Green and Paige Holt had two apiece early on to get the Bulldogs to the turn with an 8-5 lead. Northwestern got back within a point at 10-9, but Kelsi Schmidtberger was the Dawgs closer with three kills and a block among the Bulldogs final five points as they finished it off at 15-11.
The match was very balanced statistically with SWOSU hitting .247 compared to a .211 mark for the Rangers, who committed 29 hitting errors to offset their 68-to-53 advantage in kills for the match. NWOSU had 81 digs and nine service aces compared to 76 and one, respectively for the Bulldogs, who had the advantage at the net with 14 blocks while the Rangers had eight. SWOSU’s nine solo blocks in the match represents the second-best single-game mark in school history.
SWOSU’s hitting trio of Holt, Schmidtberger and Zak had 12 kills apiece and combined for just four hitting errors as they all had a hitting percentage of .275 or better. Zak tied with Kaila Lancaster for team-high honors with 19 digs apiece and Holt set a new career-high with seven blocks (four solo, three assist) in the match.
Kayla Hebert totaled 39 assists and 13 digs in the match for her seventh straight double-double and her 18th of the season. Hebert also recorded her 1,000th assists of the season during the match, becoming just the third player in program history to reach that single-season milestone.
“I’m really proud of the way our team performed tonight,” SWOSU Head Coach Josh Collins said after the match. “This was a great example of a team win and our team hung in there through some long rallies and made the right plays when we needed to. It feels good to end the regular season on a high note, but now we must get refocused heading into the GAC Tournament next week.”
With the victory, SWOSU concludes the regular season with a record of 19-11, which is the best record in program history. The Bulldogs also claim sole possession of fourth place in the final GAC standings, but they will earn the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament with Oklahoma Baptist still in their NCAA provisional stage. SWOSU’s first round opponent at the GAC Tournament will again be Northwestern Oklahoma State, who earns the sixth seed in their first season of postseason eligibility with an 8-8 conference record. That match will take place next Thursday at noon in the first quarterfinal being played at Bank of the Ozarks Arena in Hot Springs, Arkansas.