ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The University of Arkansas volleyball team lost in five sets at Ouachita Baptist University on Thursday in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. The loss eliminated the Blossoms from Great American Conference Championship Tournament contention. However, the Blossoms tallied at least 11 wins in a season for the first time since 2016.
 
A win for the Blossoms and a loss for Arkansas Tech at Southern Arkansas would have put UAM as the eighth seed in the GAC Tournament. Unfortunately, UAM lost and ATU won putting to bed the Blossoms playoff chances.
 
Overall, it was quite an improvement for the Blossoms this season tallying 11 wins after coming off a six-win season last year. First-time head coach Jocelyn Garcia challenged the UAM team to change the culture going forward, and they definitely bought into it leaving the program in great shape for the future.
 
As for Thursday's battle in Arkadelphia, UAM and Ouachita were back-and-forth the entire match, with UAM winning the first and third sets and OBU taking the second, fourth and final sets.
 
The Blossoms looked comfortable early springing to a 12-5 advantage. Taylor Calhoun put an emphasis on the end of the run to push the lead to seven with a couple consecutive kills. Ouachita responded with a few points of its own cutting the lead to three. Later in the set, UAM hopped back out in front 20-14, and eventually went on to win the set, 25-18.
 
After OBU responded with a second set win of 25-20, UAM showed its fight taking the third set into extra points. With UAM down two, 24-22, MarKayla Dickie sparked a comeback with a big solo block, and got in on another block with Zealia Kleitz to tie the set-up, 24-24. A few rallies later, UAM won the set by two 28-26 with Hailey Fike providing the final kill.
 
UAM looked to win the match in set four but saw a big response from the Tigers who led throughout the set. OBU had a 20-9 advantage at one point, and even though the Blossoms cut the deficit to five, OBU won set four, 25-20.
 
In the fifth, UAM took a quick three-point lead at 5-2, but it was erased just as easily as OBU took the lead, 6-5. The Tigers never looked back from the advantage and would go on to win the set, 15-10, and the match, 3-2.
 
The Blossoms had three players with at least 10 kills with Leslie Polanco recording a season-high 24. Fike added 13 of her own, while Dickie provided 11.
 
Jessica Mahan registered two service aces while Katie Pearson had a remarkable 55 assists, a season-high for her as well.
 
On defense, Mahan had a season-best in digs with 38, while Polanco registered 30. Katelyn Richbourg also pitched in with 24 digs.
 
The Blossoms combined for nine blocks with Dickie combining for 4.0, Kleitz 3.0 and Calhoun and Fike recording one apiece.