Lady Bulldogs' Season Comes to End

Lady Bulldogs' Season Comes to End
November 12, 2017

New Orleans, La. - On Friday, November 10th, the Tougaloo College Lady Bulldogs' season came to an end with a 3-0 (24-26, 23-25, 19-25) semifinal loss to Dillard University in the 2017 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.

In the quarterfinal match of the tournament, the #3 seeded Lady Bulldogs took on #6 seeded Talladega College. In what could be considered the best match of the tournament, the Lady Bulldogs pulled out a 3-2 (19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 23-25, 16-14) victory over the Lady Tornadoes to advance to the semifinals. Megan Besecker led the Lady Bulldogs with 25 kills. Carolyne Edwards followed with 13 kills. Alexandra Jwainat had 45 assists. The Lady Bulldogs' defense was led by Kayla Cole with 29 digs. Taylor Kangethe followed with 19 digs. Jwainat and Jessica Porter had 11 digs apiece and Besecker finished with 10 digs.

In the semifinal game, the Lady Bulldogs led 17-9 in the first set, but could not hold on and dropped a 26-24 first set decision to #2 seeded Dillard University. The Lady Bulldogs put up a great fight in the next two sets, but it was the Lady Bleu Devils who prevailed over the Lady Bulldogs to advance to the championship game against top-seeded Xavier University. Megan Besecker led the Lady Bulldogs once again with 12 kills. Carolyne Edwards followed with 10 kills. Alexander Jwainat had 29 assist. Taylor Kangethe led the defense with 16 digs followed by Kayla Cole with 14 digs and Jwainat with 12 digs.

On Thursday night, the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference announced the All-Conference selections and individual award winners at its annual tournament banquet. For Tougaloo, Megan Besecker was selected Newcomer of the Year and was a 1st Team All-Conference selection. Joining Besecker as a 1st Team All-Conference selection was Carolyne Edwards. Kayla Cole was selected Defender of the Year and was a 2nd Team All-Conference selection. And head coach Erika LeFlore was named GCAC Coach of the Year for her outstanding job in coaching the Lady Bulldogs to the best record (20-11) in program history.