The No. 5 East Central University volleyball team forced five sets in the 2022 GAC Volleyball Championship quarterfinals but fell to No. 4 Ouachita Baptist, in the end, to close out the season. The Tigers (15-17, 10-6 GAC) fell 3-2 (25-27, 20-25, 25-26, 25-23, 12-15) to the purple and gold Tigers.
"I am proud of how the team played tonight," Head Coach Cheri Lindsay said. "We showed a lot of fight, and even though it didn't go our way, I saw some great things from them."
ECU started off slow in the first set trailing Ouachita 7-1 but quickly answered back with an 8-2 run to put themselves back in the game within one. The rest of the set was a tight battle as the score tied eight more times until the purple and gold Tigers finished off set one 27-25.
ECU came out strong in set two and traded blows in the early part of the game, but just like the first set, both teams would trade points back and forth until Ouachita pulled away 9-5. East Central clawed their way back with a 7-2 scoring run to regain the lead at 12-11. ECU was within one at 16-17, but Ouachita took control of the game and eventually finished the set 25-20.
Despite being down two sets, ECU came out on fire in the third stanza as they found their groove to take an early 5-1 lead and pushed it to 16-8. Ouachita managed to earn eight more points, but it wasn't enough to turn the game around, and East Central cruised to a third-set win 25-16.
With the game on the line, both teams traded point for point in the fourth set as there were seven ties and five lead changes in the beginning. Tied 11-all, ECU would go on a 5-0 scoring run to put them ahead 16-11. With the momentum on their side, the black and orange Tigers sealed set four 25-23 to force a fifth set.
The decisive fifth set was a battle from start to finish. Tied 6-6, OBU managed three straight points to regain the lead 9-6 and eventually 12-8. East Central fought back to within one at 12-13, but in the end, Ouachita pulls out the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.
This was the Tigers' second consecutive year of a strong showing at the GAC Volleyball Championship quarterfinals by taking an opponent to a five-set battle.
Emma Strickland led the offense with 19 kills on the night while also adding 16 digs to earn a double-double. She ends her sophomore year with 465 kills, which is the new all-time record at ECU for kills in a single season. Nyah Walker recorded 15 kills in the match to bring her season total to 335 kills, the fifth-highest in a single season at ECU. Aloni Jordan was the third Tiger to earn double-digit kills with 10 and posted an impressive 8 total blocks in the final match of her career. Leah Lawson closed out her sophomore season with a double-double performance of 54 assists and 18 digs to bring her total assist count this season to 1,024, the second-highest at ECU. Thalianette Garcia led the back row with 23 digs, while fellow senior Alejandra Delgado was close behind with 15.
Individual ECU Careers:
- Lisa Gonzalez finished her three-year career playing in 64 games and totaling 571 assists, 366 digs, and 29 aces.
- Alejandra Delgado finished her three-year career on three lists
- No. 3 ECU career digs – 1,366
- No. 2 single-season digs – 627
- No. 3 single-season service aces – 39
- Thalianette Garcia finished her three-year career on four lists
- No. 6 ECU career double-doubles – 22
- No. 5 Single-season total attacks – 967
- No. 9 single-season kills – 292
- No. 4 single-season double0doubles – 13
- Aloni Jordan –finished her three-year career on seven lists
- No. 3 ECU career solo blocks – 49
- No. 3 ECU career block assists – 201
- No. 3 ECU career total blocks – 250
- No. 8 ECU career hitting percentage - .191
- No. 1 single-season solo blocks - 31
- No. 3 single-season total blocks – 118
- No. 3 single-season block assists - 87
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