Box Score LUBBOCK – The Wayland Baptist volleyball team not only faced a tough Lubbock Christian squad Tuesday night at the Rip Griffin Center, it also had to deal with the largest group of fans WBU head coach
Jim Giacomazzi said he'd ever seen at a WBU match. The combination was enough to overwhelm the visiting team as the Pioneers fell, 25-15, 22-25, 25-21, 25-15, to their Sooner Athletic Conference rival.
After going back and forth in the first set, the Lady Chaps (9-6, 6-1 SAC) rattled off several consecutive points to take a significant lead before putting the set away for good by 10 points. The Pioneers (12-13, 4-3) weren't going to make it easy on their opponents, however, fighting back in the second set and slowly pulling away. Wayland led 24-21 near the end of the set and the Lady Chaps put down a kill to pull within two, but a kill from
Grecia Rivera capped off the set for the Wayland win.
“We were nip and tuck in that first set but they got advantage on us and wound up winning,” Giacomazzi said. “The girls stayed focused and we changed our rotation by adjusting three positions. It was successful and threw them off. We were able to take a five-point lead and then run off several toward the end.”
The third set also went back and forth as the teams traded kills and errors early on before Wayland took a five-point lead after an error by LCU and two service aces from
Shahala Hawkins and one from
Ashley Welch. The Lady Chaps came roaring back on four kills to pull within one. The teams continued to battle until the score was tied at 21 before LCU went on a 4-0 run to put away the set, 25-21.
It was do or die for the Pioneers in the fourth set, but they struggled with maintaining their focus and committed several errors, which ultimately doomed their comeback effort. The team never could get a solid run going, succumbing 25-15 to give LCU the match, 3-1.
“We executed, started hitting against their right side blocker and had lot of success…we know what we need to do to beat them,” Giacomazzi said. “The challenge was that we gave up too many free balls in the third and fourth sets and didn't pass well enough off the serve receive. Most of our errors came in those third and fourth sets on bad passes on serve receives. We gave up a couple of aces and weren't crisp in executing our passes to the setter or from the setter to the hitter.”
Rivera led the team with 15 kills and two aces, while
Natasha Giacomazzi posted 34 assists. Hawkins provided nine kills, two aces, four block assists and one solo.
Jaharys Archilla and Giacomazzi teamed up for the defense, contributing 12 and 11 digs, respectively.
Giacomazzi said his team is a completely different group than the squad that played the Lady Chaps in mid-September in Plainview.
“The positive is that we know now what we need to do to beat them,” he said. “Hopefully we'll get to play them in the conference championship because it's the only time we'll see them again.
“I'm optimistic. We have to take care of business and need to work on having better focus and concentration. When we do that, I don't think anybody in our conference can hang with us.”
Wayland takes the court again at 7 p.m. Friday in Siloam Springs, Ark., against John Brown University.
