Storm Upended by SWOSU at Home

DURANT, Okla. – Despite leads late in each of the first two sets, Southeastern was unable to capitalize and was surprised at home in a 3-0 loss to Southwestern Oklahoma State on Tuesday night in Bloomer Sullivan Gymnasium.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 5-10 overall on the year and 1-2 in Great American Conference play with the first conference road trip coming up on Sept. 29-30 with stops at Northwestern Oklahoma State and Southern Nazarene.
 
"For us," said head coach Brianna Barry after the match, "We knew that we just had to take one game at a time, and that's going to be conference for us. The last week was so emotional when we beat ECU like that, obviously it's going to bring out a lot of emotions. But the girls did really well today, at times. For us we really have to capitalize on that. Push to finish in those moments. We kind of let Southwestern get too many points in a row. That's what happened in that second set. We lost a little bit of confidence but the girls continued to push hard. We just have to work on the moment of our game."
 
"The momentum in volleyball is so interchangeable," she continued. "We had it all, then we made some mistakes and Southwestern just took it and ran. They are a strong team. They have gotten better since we saw them in the preseason. You know for our girls we just have to come ready tomorrow to practice. We have a long weekend ahead of us."
 
Southeastern finished the match with 41 kills, one more than SWOSU, but suffered from 21 errors while the Bulldogs committed 13.
 
Abby Jameson led all attackers with 12 kills on the night, with Caroline Griffith also reaching double-figures with 10.
 
Jodi Dixon dished out 30 assists and completed a double-double with 12 digs while adding a kill.
 
On defense, Caitlin Cosby turned in a match-high 26 digs to lead the way, while Jameson rounded out a double-double of her own with 19 in the effort.  Dixon's 12 checked in next with Grace Shehadeh adding 10.
 
Jameson and Arianna Baker each added two blocks.
 
In the opening set the Storm edged ahead late and had match point at 24-21, but SWOSU would take six of the next seven points to swipe the set 27-25 and take a 1-0 lead.
 
SE again held a lead late in the second set at 18-14 and again at 19-17, but the Bulldogs would score the final eight points of the set for a 25-19 win and a 2-0 lead.
 
The Storm never got the momentum back in the third set, falling behind 7-2 early and ultimately dropping the final set 25-18.