ST. CLOUD, Minnesota – The Ouachita Baptist University volleyball team closed out the 2024 season with a 3-1 loss to the top-seeded and No. 2 nationally ranked St. Cloud State Huskies in the first round of the 2024 NCAA DII Central Region Championship Thursday night in the program's first-ever NCAA tournament appearance.
Set Scores: 25-22, 28-26, 17-25, 25-13
Ouachita (22-10, 10-6 GAC) came out swinging in the NCAA first round match against top-seeded St. Cloud State (28-2, 18-0 NSIC) at the No. 2 Huskies' Halenback Hall, scoring six of the first eight points to take an early four-point lead. The eighth-seeded Tigers hung to that four-point lead for the next few points, before St. Cloud tied things up 12-12. Ouachita retook a two-point lead and started going point-for-point with the Huskies while maintaining a slim advantage. However, the Huskies put together a 4-0 run to set up set point 24-21. One point later, St. Cloud won set one 25-22.
The Tigers stayed on the offensive in set two, using a 4-1 run to take a small early lead over the Huskies. From there, the set turned into a slugfest. Ouachita seemed to have an answer for every one of St. Cloud's points to keep its advantage. Any time SCSU scored two, Ouachita scored two right back. The air was seemingly sucked out of the gym as the Tigers continued to stifle any attempt by the Huskies to find momentum. But after Ouachita went up 17-16, St. Cloud found the rhythm it had been searching for and went on a 4-0 run to take a 20-17 lead. It was back-and-forth over the next few points until the Huskies set up another set point 24-21. However, the Tigers found a spark with their backs against the wall and scored three straight points to tie the set 24-24 and force extra points. St. Cloud scored next to go up 25-24. But the Tigers had swung the momentum in their favor and strung together a 4-1 run that ended with back-to-back kills from
Kailey Thedford to give the Tigers the 28-26 victory in set two, tying the match 1-1.
Riding the win in set two, Ouachita struck first in the third. But the Tigers' early lead was short lived as St. Cloud used a 3-0 run to take a 6-4 lead. A later 5-1 run put the Huskies up five. That early five-point advantage proved to be the difference in the set. Each time Ouachita tried to cut into the deficit, SCSU answered back. The Huskies held onto their lead and won set three 25-17 and took a 2-1 lead in the match.
The two teams were neck-in-neck over the first part of set four with four lead changes and three ties before they both were tied up at 8-8. St. Cloud then went up by five after a run. Ouachita cut it back to two after scoring three straight, but the Huskies pushed their lead right back to five. St. Cloud closed out the set with the score 25-13 and won the match 3-1.
The Tigers' second set was the first set won against St. Cloud by an unranked team since October 4.
Riley Braziel and Thedford tied for the team lead in kills with 12 each.
Emily Adams was next with 10 to round out the Tigers with double-digit kills. Braziel also recorded 18 digs for her 14
th double-double of the year.
Courtney Hanson handed out 41 assists and picked up 16 digs for her 18
th double-double of the season.
Avery Jauz tied with Braziel for the team lead in digs with 18 each in Jauz's final game as a Tiger. Hanson was second in digs with 16, followed by
Peyton Church and
Kylie Kisgen with 10 each. Kisgen led the team with two aces.
Juaz led the Tigers with 564 digs on the season to rank fifth in the GAC and is the lone senior on this year's squad.
Leah Gardner led the team in blocks with three, followed by Adams and
Haley Fairchild with two.
Multiple Tigers have put their names into the Ouachita volleyball record books and found themselves near the top of the GAC leaderboards:
Hanson tallied 1,279 assists over the course of the season, which ranks fourth in program history for a single season and ranks first in the GAC in total assists for 2024. The Arlington, Texas native also ranked fifth in the conference in aces with 43 and now ranks fifth in career aces at Ouachita with 125.
Gardner put together a .358 hitting percentage over the season, ranking first in the GAC and seconds all-time at Ouachita for a single season. Adams ranked fourth in the conference in hitting percentage with a .312 and led the Tigers for 2024 with 348 kills.
Several milestones were reached this season as well. Head Coach
Allison Frizzell-Kizer became just the third coach in program history to eclipse the 100-win mark. Hanson reached the 3,000 career assists and 100 career aces marks and Jauz went over 1,000 digs in her career this season.
Ouachita volleyball closes the book on the 2024 season, but not before adding its fair share of entries to the history books. The Tigers finish the season as GAC Tournament Champions for the first time in program history and posted their first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament. Ouachita's final record is 22-10, the first 20-win season since 2018. With all but one member from this historic season set to come back for next year, the future is looking bright for Ouachita Volleyball.
