Southwestern Oklahoma State University volleyball completely dominated in the home opener Tuesday night against East Central. The Dawgs came out with their foot on the gas pedal and didn’t let up until the final point in the third match. It was a 3-0 sweep for SWOSU and was one of the best home openers in volleyball history.
Coming into the gym you could feel the tension and the excitement coming from the players and the fans. It was a packed gym and hundreds of students were there. The game was about to begin and it was already hard to hear just from the cheers of the crowd.
SWOSU came out hot in the first frame winning 25-13. Major highlights from this first frame came from both Hailey Smith and Paris Patterson. They had a combined 6 blocks in the matter of minutes. The opposing East Central Tigers couldn’t get a solid hit over the net without those two stopping them. The defense wasn’t the only thing going strong for Hailey Smith, she added up 6 kills in this first match. The Dawgs still had two more frames to go but the momentum was on their side.
Going into the second frame the energy was higher than ever, SWOSU fans wanted to support the team and were giving them all the cheering they could give. This ended up being the best frame for the Dawgs with a final score of 25-10. Morgan Ritchie came out ready to go and had 4 kills and 1 block. The Bulldogs were feeding off the crowd, and they wanted this win. Hailey Smith was going for records this frame adding 5 more kills to her stats. She was unstoppable and ECU didn’t know what to do.
Now in the last frame the fatigue began to show a little for SWOSU. The energy from the crowd was settling, that was until the last 4 points the Dawgs scored. The final score was 25-23 but SWOSU was down 21-23 and the crowd was not gonna let them lose. They brought the energy back up and you could see the energy come back in the players. They were back in it and with a huge block made by Paris Patterson and 4 more kills by Hailey Smith…SWOSU had won in a sweeping fashion. Hailey Smith ended with a record high of 16 kills in 3 frames along with 3 blocks. Talking with one of the SWOSU fans they stated, “This was one of the best matches I’ve seen played by them.”
The Dawgs are now hoping to carry this momentum into next week when they play a major game against OBU at 7pm at Oklahoma Baptist. If you can’t make the drive there, cheer on your fellow Bulldogs by watching the live stream!
