Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 | Box Score 4 Durant, Okla.—Although they showed signs of promise throughout the weekend, the OPSU volleyball team came home-empty handed taking losses in all four games of the Tiger/Savage Storm Classic tournament hosted dually by East Central and Southeastern Oklahoma State universities.

The Aggies got off to a strong start Friday in Ada, Okla. as they took ECU to four solid sets in their opening match. OPSU dominated the second set winning 25-14 but came up short of victory in sets one, three and four  despite valiant efforts (23-25, 21-25, 22-25.) Freshman Kaitlyn Carr led the Aggies in points scoring 11.5 off ten kills and three block assists and sophomore Julia Ibarra shined at the line dishing out five service aces in the match.

In Friday's second match the Aggies met with Southern Arkansas and struggled on the attack averaging .075 in hitting percentage. Southern Arkansas took three straight sets 25-14, 25-15 and 25-17 and averaged .344 in hitting with a total of 42 kills. The Aggies were led by junior Madigan Gonzales who totaled 9.5 points off seven kills, one ace and three block-assists.

Changing locations on Saturday, the team traveled from Ada to Durant where they opened with a game against Southern Nazarene. The Crimson Storm struck quickly winning all three sets efficiently (25-16, 25-19, 25-7). The Storm attacked on the serve and at the net with a total of 12 aces and 10 block-assists for the game. OPSU failed to find a rhythm landing 22 of 91 attacks for kills for a team average of .066 on the match. Emily Goeken found her flow offensively with six kills on 11 attempts for the Aggies.

Madigan Gonzales and Kaitlyn Carr combined for eight of the Aggies' nine service aces in Saturday's second game against Southeastern Oklahoma State. The Aggies rallied at the end of the first set with five straight points but couldn't pull out the win as the Savage Storm won 25-21. The Storm controlled the Aggies in set two with a swift 25-13 victory and took the final win in set three 25-20 leaving the Aggies winless on the weekend.

OPSU's leading hitters for the tournament were Kaitlyn Carr with 25 kills and Riley Abert and Madigan Gonzales with 18 kills apiece. Julia Ibarra led the team in assists totaling 42 and was great on the serve with five aces; Gonzales led with six aces for the weekend. Libero Dejiana Rubio finished with 41 digs and contributed three service aces for the tournament. Leading blockers were Gonzlaes with 12 assists, Carr with seven assists and one solo and Abert with two solos and one assist. Overall the Aggies averaged .079 hitting for the tournament and were much-improved on the serve with 25 total aces.

Coach Mike Stephens met with mixed emotions after the games saying, "We played possibly the best we played all season the first match vs. host team ECU; we did everything we needed to do to come out with a win Had a few things gone our way we would of certainly felt better the rest of the weekend. I don't know that we ever fully recovered from the amount of physical and mental effort the ECU match cost us.  I was proud of how we competed the majority of the weekend; it will help us in the long run in conference play."

The Aggies will have a week of recovery and preparation before resuming Heartland Conference play next week. The team will travel south for three road games starting on Sept. 23 in Kingsville, Texas against Texas A&M-Kingsville; conference play will then pick up in Laredo on Sept. 24 as they take on Texas A&M-International. The Aggies will finish up in San Antonio for another conference match up with St. Mary's on Sept. 25. Volleyball fans can see the team back on their home court on Oct. 4 for a Pink Out match against TAMIU.