Bulldogs hold off SAU for first GAC crown
Southern Arkansas made a living last week of coming from a set down. Two sets proved too much.
Southwestern Oklahoma stoned SAU for the first two sets before letting the Lady Muleriders back in it, putting the onus on the Bulldogs to close out the Great American Conference championship match quickly. That they did in a 25-20, 25-19, 19-25, 26-24 decision Saturday at Bank of the Ozarks Arena.
“We had eight wins last year. Eight wins total,” said fourth-year Southwestern Oklahoma coach Josh Collins. “So I definitely can’t remember ever feeling this good. I really can’t.”
The Bulldogs became the tournament’s first Arkansas champion after three victories by Arkansas Tech and one by Harding. Southern Arkansas won 3-2 over Harding Thursday night and 3-1 over two-time defending tournament champion Arkansas Tech on Friday.
Southwestern Oklahoma’s front-line defense befuddled SAU’s hitters early, throwing them off their high level that resulted in the first same-season sweep of its two Arkansas rivals in the tournament.
“It wasn’t necessarily us trying to figure them out. It was just us trying to do what we do,” SAU coach Steven Gream said. “We were just making it too easy for them and predictable. And they served aggressively and made us predictable at times. They just camped on us and iced us really well and made it harder for us. When we started moving the ball around, you saw some of our balls going down, but it really took those two sets to get it going.”
Southwestern Oklahoma (22-11) came out with 14 kills against three errors for a .239 percentage in the first set, holding SAU to a .068 percentage. The Bulldogs were even more effective in the second set with 12 kills, two errors and .233 hitting, limiting the Lady Muleriders to .044.
“We blocked extremely well,” said Collins, his team winning 14 points with blocks. “I’m so proud of our kids. We knew our gameplan. We came out and executed our gameplan. We stayed up and had fun competing. We didn’t press. We didn’t get nervous. We just came out and competed.”
Feeding the effective Bulldog hitters, especially early was junior setter Kayla Hebert, named the tournament’s most valuable player
with 42 assists Saturday and 122 in three matches. Hebert also had four kills against SAU.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Hebert said. “It’s just amazing. It’s something we’ve been working for all season, and it finally came down to it, and we got it.”
SAU solved the Bulldog block in the third set, hitting .244 with 17 kills. Southwestern Oklahoma only led at 5-4 before the Lady Muleriders reeled off 10 of the next 13, Serena LeDuff killing off set point. LeDuff led SAU with a match-high 18 kills en route to being named all-tournament.
“Serena just put the ball away, and we rode her all tournament,” Gream said. “We just came up short.”
The fourth set went backand-forth before tied at 18. The Lady Muleriders had all the momentum by scoring five straight for a 22-18 lead, but the Bulldogs came right back with five straight for 23-22.
After fourth straight sideouts, Carly Zak delivered a strong serve to set up Kelsi Schmidtberger to kill match point.
“You can’t put that into words. It was so crucial to win there,” said Collins of preventing the fifth set. “You could see it our eyes and I just knew. Even when it was 22-18, I knew we were coming.”
The Bulldogs needed their offense in the fourth to outslug SAU, recording 18 kills to 14 for the opposition. Freshman Jill Green led them with 16 kills.
“Jill Green, a freshman, just coming out and performing like that,” Collins said. “It makes me feel really good about the next four years.”
Zak and Schmidtberger joined Hebert on the all-tournament team, Zak finishing with 14 kills and Schmidtberger 10.
SAU libero Hannah Rice of Bryant joined LeDuff on the all-tournament team after her match-high 30 digs. Rice, who set the SAU single-season record for digs this year, had 102 for the tournament, averaging 34 per match.
Shelby Lauterbach had 17 kills and Emilie Aase 11 for the Lady Muleriders.
Southwestern Oklahoma secured the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division II tournament, likely drawing topranked Concordia-St. Paul in the first round.
“We’re going to go up and give probably the No. 1 team in the country all we got,” Collins said.