Women's Volleyball | 10/2/2017 10:49:00 AM
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Box Score 2 Goodwell, Okla.—Oklahoma Panhandle State Volleyball hosted two Sooner Athletic Conference matches on Friday and Saturday with the Aggies taking both games into extra sets. Friday night's exciting five-set shootout resulted in a win for the visiting team from Saint Gregory's 3-2, but Saturday's contest with Southwestern Christian gave the ladies of Panhandle their third conference victory of the season 3-1.
The Aggies got off to a hot start Friday evening in the Oscar Williams Field House, taking two straight sets (25-19, 25-23) from a fifth-ranked SAC Saint Gregory's team. The Cavaliers came into the contest with an 11-6 overall record and improved to a 3-3 conference record after edging out three wins in row over the Aggies (25-23, 25-1, 15-10).
Freshman hitter Quiara Pointdexter and junior right side
Courtney Adams held team-highs for Panhandle with 12 kills apiece in the SGU match. Middle blocker
Barbara Forman landed nine kills and offered two block assists in the game; sophomore
Kendra Butler totaled three block assists and five kills. Setters
Julia Ibarra and
Gabrielle Cruz put up 22 and 18 assists respectively; Ibarra also aided with 16 digs and three service aces. Libero
McKenna Clement led the game with 28 digs and had one service ace.
Saturday started in similar fashion as the Aggies came out strong with wins in sets one and two (25-21, 25-16) over Southwestern Christian. The Eagles took advantage of personnel changes in set three and claimed a 25-12 win, before falling to Panhandle in the fourth 26-24. SCU owned a 10-4 season record and three SAC wins going into the match.
Panhandle out-performed the Eagles with a .209 hitting percentage for the match.
Kendra Butler put in a big-time effort totaling a career-high 24 points on 18 kills and six service aces. Butler's game-high numbers helped the Aggies notch their third SAC win of the year. Pointdexter, Forman and Adams each contributed nine kills in the game, and freshman
Essence Kays came through at the net with two solo blocks and one block assist. Ibarra recorded a game-high of 28 assists and served up three aces against the Eagles. Clement marked a career-high with 29 digs to lead the game at libero.
The Aggies now hold a 5-9 season record and a 3-4 record within the Sooner Athletic Conference. Head Coach
Matt Heffner was proud to see his team's hard work pay off stating, "It was a good weekend for our team to grow and develop a team identity. Losing in five on Friday night was tough after leading 2-0, but coming back Saturday morning and winning in four after being up 2-0 is a huge step in the right direction for OPSU volleyball. It puts us in a good place in the early conference standings as well."
Panhandle State volleyball will break from SAC play with a non-conference matchup in Alva on Oct. 3. The Aggies take on Northwestern Oklahoma State at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Live stats and video links are available online at opsuaggies.com. The team will take a two-week road stretch with SAC games at Bacone on Oct. 6, John Brown on Oct. 7 and Oklahoma City University on Oct. 13. Aggie volleyball will return to the Oscar Williams Field House to host a Pink Out match on Saturday, Oct. 14 at Noon.
