MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Down two sets to one and trailing 16-9 in the fourth set of the evening, the Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Volleyball team engineered a rally to force a fifth set, but was unable to close out the set as Ouachita withstood the SAU surge to improve to 2-0 in Great American Conference play.
 
The Lady Muleriders (6-10, 0-2 GAC) were held to an attack percentage of .056 in the opening frame as the Lady Tigers (9-4, 2-0 GAC) hit .343 (17-5-35) and cruised to a 25-15 set one win. But SAU would even the set at one as they scored four straight points with Ouachita holding set point to take a 26-24 set two win.
 
Ouachita jumped out to an 8-4 lead in set three, before the Lady Muleriders rallied to tie the set at 10. A 9-2 run from Ouachita would kill the SAU momentum as the Lady Tigers took a 2-1 match lead by cruising late to a 25-15 set three win.
 
In the fourth set, Ouachita appeared to be on their way to claiming the match, before the Lady Muleriders suffocated a 7-3 run with two kills each from Alexia Southern and Seven Powers and a kill apiece from freshman front liners Bailey Cagle and Lauren Smith to propel SAU to a 25-23 set four win.
 
Leading 3-1 in the match's final set of the evening, Ouachita distanced themselves with an 8-1 run that proved too much for the Lady Muleriders to overcome as Ouachita, who entered the night third overall in the GAC, escaped Magnolia with their second league win.
 
SAU hit .108 overall with a match-high attack percentage of .238 (16-6-42) coming in the fourth set. The Lady Tigers bookended sub.-200 hit clips with an opening frame swing percentage of .343 and a set five attack clip of .500 (8-0-16).
 
Three Lady Muleriders recorded ten or more kills led by Southern's season-high 17 kills with Powers adding 14 and O'Banion recording ten. A pair of SAU setters logged 20-plus kills with Alexa Bass leading the offensive attack with 34 assists and Savannah Pillow adding 24.
 
Four players produced ten or more digs with Whitney Brown recording 15 digs and classmate Riley Marsh adding 14. Southern registered a double-double effort by adding 13 digs and Bass registered a double-double performance after collecting a dozen digs.
 
Cagle led with six blocks and added seven kills at a team-best .294 attack percentage.
 
The Lady Muleriders hit the road for their first league game away from the W.T. Watson Center: a 6 p.m. first-serve at Henderson State on Thursday, September 21. Live links for all of the action can be found at www.muleriderathletics.com.