ALVA, Okla. – Southeastern played its 10
th five-set match of the season on Friday, overcoming an 0-2 deficit to rally for the 3-2 win over Northwestern Oklahoma State in the regular season finale to lock up third place in the Great American Conference standings.
The Savage Storm improve to 17-13 on the year overall and 10-4 in GAC play and finish tied with Harding for third in the league standings, but will earn the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament on the strength of a 3-1 win in the only meetings between the teams this season.
SE will open play in the Great American Conference Tournament against Southern Arkansas in Hot Springs, Ark., on Nov. 13 at noon.
The No. 3 finish matches the best conference finish in program history, matching the 2011 finish in the inaugural year of the GAC.
This season's team not only matched the highest finish, but also posted the best record since the 2009 team that went 22-14.
The offense was an even attack spread across a group of six players.
Megan Kunkel led that group with 14 kills, while
Courtney Miller and
Emily Gentle each added 13.
Ariel Sanders and
Julia Benford each added nine kills, while
Alissa Benson added seven.
Benson was busy on the night, falling three kills shy of a triple double after adding 42 assists and 14 digs in the match.
Kunkel and Miller each completed double-doubles as well, with Kunkel picking up 16 digs and Miller 14.
Kelsey Zerkel also reached double-figures with 15 digs.
At the net, Sanders posted three blocks and Gentle added two.
The Storm dug itself a hole after letting sets one and two slip away by scores of 25-18 and 25-19, respectively.
SE had a resounding response in the third set, opening up a 9-3 lead early and never looking back en route to a 25-13 win to close to 2-1.
The fourth set was even early, but the Storm used a 9-1 run midway through the match to turn a deficit into an 18-12 lead before picking up the 25-018 win to event he match at 2-2.
The deciding set did not start off well for SE as they quickly found themselves down 5-0.
However, the team drew on the experience of having played in nine previous five-set matches and answered with a 9-1 run to open up a 9-6 lead.
NWOSU would score twice more to close to 9-8, but a 5-0 run would put SE in the driver's seat to a 15-10 win in the set and a 3-2 win in the match.
