MONTICELLO, Ark. – The Arkansas-Monticello volleyball team picked up its first Great American Conference win of the season with a 3-2 victory over visiting Southeastern Oklahoma State.
 
The hard-fought win raises the Blossoms' record to 3-22 overall with a 1-9 mark in GAC play. The loss puts the Savage Storm's record at 6-16 overall and 2-8 in league play.
 
The teams battled evenly in the first set. SE looked to take control of the first set with a 12-9 lead. UAM battled back to knot the score at 16 before eventually taking a 20-17 lead of its own. The Storm charged back into the lead at 24-22, but UAM would reel off two straight points to knot the score again at 24.
 
The squads traded points as the set wore on, but SE finally took advantage of a pair of UAM errors to cap a 28-26 win in the opening frame.
 
UAM controlled the second frame. After playing to a 7-7 tie early in the second stanza, UAM got a kill from Zealia Kleitz to grab the lead and never trailed again. The Blossoms eventually built a 4-point advantage at 23-19, but the Storm mounted a final rally and drew within two points before Laurene Cushinberry ended the proceedings with a thunderous kill on an assist from Shayna Daniels.
 
The third frame was more of the same. The Blossoms sprinted out to a 4-1 lead and never looked back. From there UAM continued to build on its lead and Cushinberry again ended the set on a kill that gave her squad the 25-18 win in the third set.
 
UAM looked to be in control of the fourth frame in the early going, but the Storm rallied to tie the score at 14 on a Kill from Abby Jameson. UAM would not lead the fourth set again. However, the set would see the Blossoms rallied to tie the score three more times. However, two straight attack errors put SE over the top and sent the match to a fifth and deciding set.
 
UAM took control of the final frame early, getting out to a 7-2 lead. SE, however, would not go quietly. After falling behind to UAM 11-5, The Storm rallied for 6 straight points to knot the score at 11. It would prove to be the final points of the evening for SE.
 
The Blossoms spun off four straight points of their own to take a 15-11 win in the final set and capture the match.
 
Leslie Polanco led the Blossoms with 15 kills in the contest while Halli Lambert added 11. Daniels tallied 41 assists.
 
The Storm got 15 kills from Abby Jameson and 30 assists from Sydney Meget.
 
UAM returns to the court tomorrow at 1 PM against East Central University.