Box Score PLAINVIEW – The Wiley College volleyball team wasn't very welcoming when the Wayland squad traveled the 10-hour drive to Marshall last Monday, beating their visitors 3-1. The Pioneers (10-11) returned the favor here Saturday evening, however, taking an identical 3-1 victory over Wiley (15-7) before sending them packing.
Wayland head coach
Jim Giacomazzi was pleased with how his team came together to overcome a team that had their number less than two weeks before.
“Shahala (Hawkins) really started out on fire in the first set and had five kills on eight attempts, and ended up with 16 kills in the match,” he said. “Chelsey (Driskill) had another good night and Grecia (Rivera) had one of her best matches since she started. Her stomach is starting to feel better and her parents came up from Mexico to see her play. We actually had a lot of parents here this weekend, from San Antonio, El Paso and Denver City.”
Hawkins, who was named the Sooner Athletic Conference Player and Hitter of the Week for Sept. 24-30, led the team with 16 kills, followed by Rivera with 12 and Driskill with 11.
Natasha Giacomazzi contributed 44 assists and a team-high 30 digs, and was followed by Rivera with 15 digs. Hawkins led the way at the net, contributing four block assists, while Driskill and Rivera each had three.
Tania Gomez racked up one solo block and two block assists.
Giacomazzi was also excited to see his team hitting their statistical goals.
“We wanted to average 20 digs per set and we did that in the first couple of sets,” the coach said. “I also wanted to see our blocks come up and we did that in the last set, so we ended up with quite a few blocks.”
After falling to SAC leader Oklahoma Baptist (21-3) on Friday evening, the Pioneers bounced back with the win against Wiley and a 3-0 victory over conference opponent St. Gregory's (10-9) Saturday morning.
“It was good to see them put together a solid match against a good team after playing earlier today and having a little fatigue,” Giacomazzi said. “We were loose out there and that was good. It's nice to have a two-game winning streak before we hit the road soon for five straight matches. Hopefully we can string a bunch of matches in a row and climb out of the .500 area.”
Wayland will host the University of Texas-Permian Basin (7-12) at 7 p.m. Wednesday for the team's Pink Out/Breast Cancer Awareness match before hitting the highway for the aforementioned five road matches.
