Volleyball Finishes with Flourish

November 3, 2007

DENTON, Texas – The Southwestern Oklahoma State University Bulldogs put the finishing touches on a late-season rush that saw them win four of their final five volleyball matches after a 3-0 beating of Texas Woman’s in Denton Saturday. The win ended the Bulldogs season with a 14-19 record, a four-game improvement over last year’s 10-win total. More importantly SWOSU’s final flurry allowed them to climb into an eighth-place tie with Tarleton State in the final Lone Star Conference standings at 5-7.

Tarleton was awarded the eighth and final spot in the LSC post-season tournament because of a tiebreaker advantage they held thanks to beating the Bulldogs earlier in a conference match.

Against TWU, SWOSU delivered the key plays at the critical times and won by scores of 31-29, 30-28, and 30-26.

Kasandra Gurtner again was the offensive hero for the Bulldogs coming up with 16 kills against only four errors in 37 attacks. She finished with an attack percentage of .324.

Setter Kristen Kaufman kept the Bulldogs rolling delivering 45 assists and helping SWOSU to finish with a .164 hitting percentage with 55 kills against only 29 errors.

SWOSU turned back two game points in the opener as TWU had a 29-27 advantage. Amber Coles had a kill to tie the game at 29-29 and then delivered the game winner to put the Bulldogs on top 31-29

The second game was tight the entire way as neither team holding much advantage. It was tied at 23, 24 and 25-all before SWOSU pulled ahead at the end.

SWOSU used a 9-5 run late in game three to take control and ended it when Tennessee Brown delivered her seventh and final kill of the match.