Bronchos Fall Short At SBU

10/22/2013 8:56:00 PM

Taylyn Schwartz

Box Score

BOLIVAR, Mo. (Oct. 22) – A frantic comeback fell short for Central Oklahoma here Tuesday night as the Bronchos dropped a hard-fought five-set Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association decision to Southwest Baptist.

UCO overcame a 21-16 fourth-set deficit to send the match to a fifth set before the Bearcats prevailed in the end, pulling out a 25-23, 18-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-10 victory. The Bronchos fell to 16-6 overall and 6-4 in the league in having a four-match winning streak ended, while SBU improved to 13-8 and 4-5.

"It was a great match that could have gone either way, but in the end they made a few more plays than we did," head coach Edgar Miraku said. "I was proud of the way we battled back in the fourth set to give ourselves a chance and we just came up a little short."

The Bearcats had a 2-1 lead in sets and were poised to end the match after taking a 21-16 lead in the fourth set before UCO rallied. Allison Barr and Barbara Jackson took over the rest of the way, with Barr collecting four kills and Jackson two while the two combined for a block as the Bronchos ended the set with a 9-1 spurt to even the match.

But UCO couldn't complete the comeback, never recovering after falling behind 2-0 early in the fifth and deciding set.

Jackson let the Bronchos, tying a career-high with 21 kills while adding a career-best 23 digs and four blocks. Barr ended up with 18 kills and four blocks and Tyler Gromann chipped in seven kills.

UCO also got 51 assists from Taylyn Schwartz, 32 digs from Tate Hardaker and 15 digs from Carissa Ophus.

The Bronchos led 19-17 in the first set after Jackson's solo block, but SBU went on an 8-4 run the rest of the way to pull out the victory in taking the early lead.

UCO bounced back in the second set, getting back-to-back kills from Gromann and three kills from Barr in a 9-1 run that turned a 13-13 tie into a 22-14 lead en route to tying the match. The Bronchos had a 4-1 lead in the third set before SBU roared back to take that win.

Central returns to action Friday, hosting conference foe Lindenwood for a 7 p.m. match at Hamilton Field House.

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