Volleyball Advances to GAC Semifinal

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – (HTML Box Score) Third-seeded Oklahoma Baptist fell behind early but rallied to defeat No. 6 Ouachita 3-1 (17-25, 27-25, 25-22, 25-21) at the Great American Conference Championships at Bank of the Ozarks Arena Thursday afternoon.
 
The Lady Bison (18-14) punched a ticket to the GAC Semifinal with the win in their first-ever GAC tournament match and will face No. 2 Harding Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. for a championship match berth.
 
OBU hit for a dismal .108 in the first set as the Tigers (19-12) rolled to an easy first-set victory. Oklahoma Baptist closed the second set on a 4-1 run to even up the match at one set each. Mikayla Watson picked up two kills in the run.
 
Trailing 10-18 in the third set, the Lady Bison fought their way back to a 17-21 deficit. OBU then went on an 8-0 run behind three kills from Cadyn Laing and two blocks each from Nicole Fleitman and Malia Leatherland. Fleitman sealed the set with a final kill. A late run from Ouachita in the fourth set wasn't enough as the Lady Bison closed out the set and advanced to the weekend.
 
Laing finished with 18 kills, Watson added a double-double with 17 kills and 10 digs, Hayden Blair added 46 assists and 11 digs and Fleitman finished with nine total blocks.
 
As a team, the Lady Bison registered 16.0 blocks for the match, with Sophia Couto adding six blocking assists and a solo block and Watson and Leatherland finishing with four blocking assists each.
 
Harding defeated Southwestern Oklahoma State 3-1 Thursday to advance. Arkansas Tech and Southern Nazarene will battle it out in the other semifinal match.