SHAWNEE, Okla. --- The Wayland Baptist volleyball team concluded its final regular season road trip of the year with a three-set loss to #21 Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Bison came out on top of the Pioneers by scores of 25-16, 25-19, and 25-22.
With its weekend wins over Lubbock Christian and Wayland, OBU clinched the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season title and will host the conference tournament scheduled for Nov. 11 and 12.
WBU coach Jim Giacomazzi said his team "did some things right and some wrong" against Oklahoma Baptist, but feels overall the match gave his team a good chance to "feel out" the Lady Bison in preparation for a possible meeting in the championship game of the SAC tourney.
"Any shot we have at a berth in the national tournament will most likely have to go through that team. I think next time we can be competitive against them. You know what the old saying is, 'it's hard to beat a team three times in one season.'"
Giacomazzi's squad got the first point of the match on a kill by Alissa Hodgson, but never had another lead in the first set. In the second, the Pioneers held an 18-15 advantage thanks largely to senior Tatiana Gonzalez, who had seven of her team-high 12 kills in the middle set. However, the Lady Bison came back to score the final eight points for the victory.
OBU kept its streak going in the third set, winning the first five points, but WBU scored the next five to tie it up. The Lady Bison quickly regained the upper-hand, stretching out to a 23-16 lead.
The Pioneers didn't concede the match at that point, taking six of the next seven points, the last three of which were blocks by Kimberli Harger and Gonzalez. A final kill by OBU's Tasha White put an end to the game.
Gonzalez was the lone Wayland player to hit the double figure mark in kills. Ashley Duff, a freshman, held her own against the Lady Bison, recording an attack percentage of .636 after putting down seven kills on her 11 swings without committing an error. Sophomore setter Natasha Giacomazzi handed out 31 assists.
Defensively, the Pioneers were credited with 72 digs, led by Giacomazzi with 18. Harger added 14, Hodgson had 13 and Kate Trejos got 10. Gonzalez was in on a team-high five blocks.
The Wayland netters (18-13, 7-5) return home for their final two regular season matches. They take on Oklahoma City University on Friday evening at 7 p.m., and then battle Southern Nazarene on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. The five senior Pioneers will be honored prior to the match against SNU.
