Seniors, Forson Lift SE to 3-2 Win in Home Finale

DURANT, Okla. – All five seniors pitched in and Ruthie Forson wrote her name in the record book as Southeastern celebrated Senior Night by keeping its postseason hopes alive with a dramatic 3-2 win over Northwestern Oklahoma State in Bloomer Sullivan Gymnasium on Tuesday night.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 8-17 overall on the season and 5-10 in Great American Conference play, keeping them very much in contention for the one of the final two slots in the GAC Tournament.
 
Forson finished the contest with her third triple-double of the season, but put her name in the record book by handing out 63 assists which is tied for the third most by an SE setter in school history.
 
To those 63 assists she added 10 kills and 18 digs to round out the triple-double, while chipping in three blocks.
 
In addition to being a must-win matchup for SE, it was also Senior Night for Madison Martinez, Grace Shehadeh, Crisslynn Autry, Caroline Griffith, and Jocelyn Grewing and they did everything they could to make sure their final home match was a victory.
 
Offensively, Grewing exploded for a career-high 22 kills on the night, while Griffith added 12 kills and Martinez chipped in eight.
 
On defense is was Shehadeh and Autry's turn as the former led all defenders with 26 digs while the latter finished with 14.
 
In addition to the senior's load, the Storm offense got 13 kills from Mya Afflerbach and 10 from Jadyn James as five players finished with double-digit kill tallies.
 
McKenzie Turkoly added 19 digs on defense, while Micah Stiggers chipped in 14 as five players also posted double-digit digs.
 
Southeastern jumped ahead early in set one and never trailed, using a series of small bursts to inch away, eventually building a 21-13 lead before taking the opening set 25-20, led by a six-kill effort from Grewing right out of the gate.
 
Set two marked the eighth time this season that SE has played a set past 25 points, but that's where the similarities with those sets end as Tuesday featured the longest extension of a set on the season as Grewing and Afflerbach posted five kills each to lead SE to a 31-29 win and a 2-0 lead in the set.
 
Southeastern saw its momentum slip in the third set, falling behind early and clawing back to tie the set four times before a NWOSU 5-0 run would give them an edge as they would take the set 25-23.
 
The fourth set was the second time on the night and the ninth time on the season that the set extended past 25 points, this time just barely as the Rangers would break a 20-20 tie by taking a 24-21 lead, with an SE rally forcing an extra point before NWOSU eventually took the set 26-24 to even the match at 2-2.
 
Southeastern pounced on the Rangers out of the gate in the fifth set, taking a 5-1 lead early, but NWOSU would rally and tie the match at 7-7 and again at 8-8 and 9-9. From that point on it was all Storm however, as a Grewing kill broke the tie and set off a 6-1 run to close out the fifth set with a 15-10 SE win.