ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita volleyball team shook off its first-set loss and rallied to win three straight to beat Arkansas-Fort Smith on Thursday night in the first home game of the 2025 season.
In a back-and-forth opening set, extra points were needed to determine a winner. The Lions rallied to win 27-25. Ouachita responded by cleaning up the errors to dominate the second set 25-15. It was close in the third and fourth sets with Ouachita coming away with 25-23 and 26-24 wins to seal the match and move to 5-1 on the season.
Emily Adams was the offensive star of the match, finishing with 20 kills on 42 swings with only three errors for a .405 hitting percentage. It was her fourth career match with at least 20 kills.
In the first set, the Lions went on a 4-0 run midway to take an 18-14 lead before the Tigers answered by winning eight of the next 10 rallies to go up 22-20. The Tigers later held set point at 24-23, but the Lions rallied to win four of the next five points to win the set.
The highlight of set two was an 8-0 run to put the Tigers up 19-9. UAFS began a comeback, but the damage had already been done leading an even 1-1 score heading into the third.
UAFS pulled away first in the third set, at one point winning 10 of 13 points to go up 17-12. Momentum shifted to the Ouachita side of the net later with a 6-0 run. Adams came on strong for the Tigers late in the third with three straight kills to give her team a set point advantage of 24-22. Ouachita went on to win on a UAFS attack error.
The final set featured a back-and-forth rally with Ouachita stalling a late UAFS surge to win three straight points, highlighted by a pair of kills from Adams and one from
Leah Gardner.
In addition to Adams' match-high 20 kills,
Kailey Thedford added eight and Gardner finished with seven.
Haley Fairchild also had seven kills and led the team at the net with four total blocks.
Courtney Hanson finished with 34 assists, five kills, three service aces, and seven digs.
Kylie Kisgen led the back row with 22 digs.
Riley Braziel and
Peyton Church also reached double-digits in the digs category with 12 each.
Thursday's win kickstarted this weekend's Tiger-Reddie Challenge co-hosted by Ouachita and Henderson State. There are two matches on the schedule for Friday to be played at Ouachita's Sturgis Physical Education Center. Arkansas-Fort Smith takes on Mississippi College at 1 p.m., and Ouachita hosts UT-Dallas at 5 p.m.
