Box Score
Box Score

The Fort Hays State volleyball team played their final home match of the 2011 season on Saturday night (Nov. 5) at Gross Memorial Coliseum. The Tigers hosted the Bearcats of Southwest Baptist, and after falling down a set twice, battled back to get the win in the fifth set. Scores of the sets were 23-25, 25-21, 25-27, 28-26, 15-11.

Southwest Baptist caught the Tigers off guard to begin the match and held a comfortable lead throughout the set, leading by five on several occasions. Fort Hays State started to get close late in the set, but ran out of time and dropped the set at 25-23 after a kill by Kylie Heim.

The second set saw FHSU jump on top early, pushing the lead to 9-4 on a kill from Madison Schwartz. It did not take long for Southwest Baptist to tie the set as they took advantage of four consecutive hitting errors by the Tigers. Kurt Kohler then adjusted his lineup for the remainder of the set as freshman Taylor Elkinton, Sara Hewson and Taylor Mares came off the bench to provide a spark which helped the Tigers get the set at 25-21.

The momentum carried the Tigers early in the third set as they once again built a large lead, only to see Southwest Baptist come roaring back. FHSU led by as many as seven at 16-9 before the Bearcats went on a spurt that pulled them to within two at 19-17. SBU just continued to inch closer as the set drew to a close and took their first lead at 23-22 on a hitting error by Hewson. Hewson redeemed herself two points later after the teams traded kills and she tied the match at 24-24. After once again trading kills, Carrie Johnson put another one down for the Bearcats and Jenna Isaacs and Jordan Nedbalek blocked an attempt from Megan Glandon to take the set victory at 27-25.

Southwest Baptist appeared on their way to winning the match after they jumped all over the Tigers early in the fourth set. Trailing 11-6, Kohler called a timeout to regroup the Tigers and they managed to quickly right the ship and cut the deficit to one at 16-15 following a string of kills from Kayla Zoglman, Hewson and Kylee Hoagland. Following a Southwest Baptist timeout, the teams went back and forth trading kills before SBU pulled ahead at 22-20 on a hitting error by Camille Hubert. Back-to-back blocks by the Tigers tied the score at 22-22 and gave the Tigers the momentum once again. The teams again traded points up to 26-26 and FHSU finally pulled after a Hoagland kill and a block by Ulrich and Zoglman put them ahead 28-26 and tied the match at two sets apiece.

The fifth set started out as a slugfest, with each team trading blows until they were tied at 3-3. Southwest Baptist pulled ahead 5-3 after a Tiger error, but a Hoagland kill and two SBU hitting errors put FHSU up 6-5 and forced a Bearcat timeout. The teams would again be tied up until it was 9-9 and Fort Hays State began to pull away. Hewson got a kill to make it 10-9 and Ulrich and Megan Glandon combined for a block to give the Tigers a 11-9 advantage and force SBU to call another timeout. Southwest Baptist would pull within one more time before FHSU put the match away on kills by Ulrich and Schwartz which made it 15-11.

Schwartz led the way for the Tigers, putting down 18 kills and hitting .293 for the match. Ulrich (16), Hewson (12) and Hoagland (10) also had double figure kills for FHSU, who outhit the Bearcats .181 to .171 for the match. Tracie Hileman, playing her final match as a Tiger at Gross Memorial Coliseum, and Makenzie Weinman led the defense with 25 digs each. Zoglman and Elkinton split time at setter and each had over 25 assists. Ulrich had seven assist blocks to raise her team lead to 123 for the season.'

Southwest Baptist, who got 15 kills from Carrie Johnson and 14 from Jordan Nedbalek, falls to 11-19 on the year and 4-11 in the MIAA.

Fort Hays State improves to 17-13 on the season and clinches their first winning season since 2005 with the win. In addition, the Tigers move to 5-10 in MIAA play and they won consecutive conference matches for the first time since joining the conference in 2006. FHSU will play three road matches next week to finish up the regular season.