Box Score The latest victory for the Wayland Baptist volleyball team was a little bittersweet…literally.
On Senior Night when 5-foot-2 libero
Jaharys Archilla was the team's lone honoree, the Pioneers defeated the Oklahoma City University Stars in Sooner Athletic Conference play Friday in Hutcherson Center, 26-24, 25-13, 25-21.
“Overall it was a good team effort,” Wayland coach
Jim Giacomazzi said. “Everybody did a good job.”
Including Archilla, who had a team-best 14 digs. It's that kind of defense that the Pioneers are going to miss next season from their little libero.
“She's doing a great job. We're happy to have her here,” Giacomazzi said of the Puerto Rican transfer. “She's a fun girl who brings excitement and enthusiasm and has been a good person to help our new girls with her leadership skills.”
Archilla and the Pioneers (15-13 overall, 6-3 SAC) turned in a solid, if not flashy, performance against OCU (13-20, 3-6), ending with 36 kills and a .284 hitting percentage compared to the Stars' 35 kills and .125. The difference was blocking as the Pioneers matched a season-high with 15 (one solo and 28 block assists) compared to none for the Stars.
“They did a very good job setting the block and then making solid blocks with good penetration,” said Giacomazzi, pointing out that thanks to their 15 blocks the Pioneers – through a special fund-raising promotion funded by the coach and the Plainview Soroptimist Club – raised $150 to help in the fight against breast cancer.
One night after she matched her season-high with 18 kills in a win over University of the Southwest, freshman
Shahala Hawkins tallied 10 block assists, in addition to seven kills.
“Shahala had another good night,” Giacomazzi said.
So did fellow frosh
Tania Gomez, who also had impressive numbers with seven block assists and a team-leading 10 kills.
Chelsey Driskill, yet another freshman, had nine kills while hitting .500, and junior
Natasha Giacomazzi had 31 assists.
“We've been working with Tania all season, and she really rose to the occasion and was consistent tonight hitting .316,” Coach Giacomazzi said. “It's good to see some of the changes we've been making out there on the floor.”
Although the scores last time were closer, Giacomazzi felt the Pioneers played a better match tonight than they did in beating OCU 25-17, 25-17, 25-15 on the road earlier this season.
“I think overall we played better than last time,” he said. “Obviously we did (better) blocking. We had 11 there and 15 here. On serve receive, except for a couple of times in the first set, we had great night.” Wayland ended with seven serve-receive errors.
Wayland's last home match is 11 a.m. Saturday against Mid-America Christian (16-11, 2-7), which lost to Lubbock Christian 3-0. That will be the final outing in “The Hutch” for Archilla.
“She's a great story within a story,” Giacomazzi said. “I didn't recruit her, but her husband (
Cristhian Ospina) was on soccer team” and told me Archilla played volleyball. “So she came out and trained with us and worked her way into the starting lineup. She's been a vital part of our defense.”
