WEATHERFORD, Okla. – The Harding volleyball team dropped its first Great American Conference match of the season Friday in four sets. Southwestern Oklahoma won 3-1 (25-16, 25-22, 23-25, 25-16) as it snapped a Harding 29-match conference winning streak dating back to 2021.

Harding falls to 13-8 overall and 8-1 in the GAC. Despite the loss, the Lady Bisons stayed in first place in the conference standings.

Southwestern Oklahoma improves to 13-5 on the season and 7-2 in the GAC.

FIRST SET

Southwestern Oklahoma jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the first set before Harding went on a 4-0 run to pull within two, 9-7. The Bulldogs answered back with a 6-0 run on three kills to lead 15-7. Southwestern Oklahoma went on to win the set 25-16. The Bulldogs had 17 kills in the set and hit .368.

SECOND SET

Southwestern Oklahoma again took an early 6-2 lead in the second set. Tied at 13, the Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run to lead 18-13. Harding battled back to cut the lead to one, 23-22 but back-to-back kills by Southwestern Oklahoma gave it the set 25-22. The Bulldogs had 16 kills and forced eight Harding attack errors in the set.

THIRD SET

Southwestern Oklahoma jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the third set. Harding fought back to tie the set at 17 on a 9-4 run on five kills. The Bulldogs answered back with a 4-0 run to lead 21-17. Harding came back again with a 6-0 run on three kills to lead 23-21. Leading 24-23, Harding had a kill by Logan Smith-Morgan to win the set 25-23. Harding had 15 kills in the set.

FOURTH SET

Trailing 11-7 in the fourth set, Southwestern Oklahoma went on a 11-0 run on six kills to lead 18-11. The Bulldogs went on to win the set 25-16. Southwestern Oklahoma had 15 kills in the set and held Harding to seven.

STATS

Harding

-          Harding had 44 kills, 29 attack errors and hit .080 in the match.

-          Skyler McKinnon and Jacey Lambert each had 11 kills to lead the Lady Bisons.

-          Harding had 88 digs in the match with Emma Winiger having 23 of them. Logan Smith-Morgan had 17 digs and Cam Hinton had 11.

Southwestern Okla.

-          Southwestern Oklahoma had 60 kills, 21 attack errors and hit .217 in the match.

-          Lacy Mott and Taryn Galt each had 15 kills.

-          The Bulldogs had 100 digs in the match. Lacy Mott and Jada Permenter each had 26 digs.

UP NEXT

Harding will be back in action Thursday when it hosts East Central at 6 p.m., at the Rhodes-Reaves Field House.