ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita volleyball team clinched the outright Great American Conference regular season championship on Thursday night in a three-set sweep across the street over Henderson State.
The title is Ouachita's second GAC regular season championship and fifth overall including the program's time in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference. It is Ouachita's sixth combined conference title counting the 2024 GAC tournament championship.
With Thursday night's win, Ouachita wraps up the regular season at 25-4 overall, marking the second-best single-season win total in program history, trailing only the 1988 squad that finished at 27-14. The Tigers turned in a 15-1 record in GAC matches this season, cushioning the school record in conference wins in a season broken on Tuesday night against Arkansas Tech.
Final set scores of Thursday night's win were 27-25, 25-13, and 25-19.
The two squads traded blows early in the first set before Ouachita gained control late going up 22-17. HSU the scored four straight to make it a one-point game. A few rallies later, the Tigers held set point, but the Reddies fought back to force extra points. HSU never held a set point, and the Tigers sealed the win on a kill from
Emily Adams followed by a block from
Haley Fairchild and
Riley Braziel.
The Tigers controlled most of the second and third sets, taking advantage of HSU's final total of 24 attack errors. Ouachita had something to do with half of those errors with 12 total blocks in the win, led by
Leah Gardner with seven.
HSU made a run at the end of the third set after trailing 22-11. The Reddies rallied to win seven of eight points, including a run of three straight with Ouachita holding match point. Ouachita ultimately capitalized on a HSU error to seal the win.
Kailey Thedford and
Emily Adams paced the offensive attack with 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
Riley Braziel added nine kills and a season-high 19 digs.
Courtney Hanson had 27 assists and 23 digs for her 19th double-double of the year and fourth match this season with at least 20 in both categories.
Kylie Kisgen also recorded 23 digs in the win.
The Tigers now gear up to defend its GAC tournament championship, entering this year's event as the No. 1 seed. Ouachita opens up with No. 8 seed Southern Arkansas on Thursday, November 20 at 3 p.m. The single-elimination tournament is being played in Shawnee, Oklahoma at FireLake Arena with the winner earning an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
