Box Score
Jim Giacomazzi has been coaching volleyball a long time, but he saw something Wednesday night that he's never seen before.
"I don't think I ever coached a team that had three players hit over .400," Giacomazzi said after No. 21 Wayland Baptist overwhelmed the University of Texas-Permian Basin in non-conference volleyball action in Hutcherson Center, 25-23, 25-16, 25-12.
Shahala Hawkins,
Chelsey Driskill and
Claire Jacobsma all hit over .400 for Wayland (17-3), which impressively bounced back from having their nine-matching win streak snapped on Saturday by No. 12 Oklahoma Baptist.
"I wasn't concerned how they would bounce back. I was concerned about them executing the improvements we worked on with blocking and digging," Giacomazzi said.
He liked what he saw.
"
Ashlyn Westerman had 17 digs, which is evidence of the hard work she put in this past week, and that helped a whole bunch," Giacomazzi, who began coaching collegiately in 1979, said. "Claire also did a good job. We've worked a bunch on how we hit. We've been hitting into the block too much, and tonight Claire only had one hitting error, and that was because of a bad set. Of the 23 sets she received, she had 11 kills" to hit .435.
Hawkins ended with 16 kills with two errors to hit .438 while Driskill had eight kills and no errors in 18 swings to top the team at .444.
Grecia Rivera added 11 kills and hit .216.
"We only had nine hitting errors for the whole match, so that was a very good match for us," Giacomazzi said of his team, which hit .336 overall.
The coach said the other thing the Pioneers have been working on is "trying to get our passing off the net more so we can set the ball further off the net and our middles be in the air earlier. Our hitters have to trust the setter that she's going to deliver the ball. We want to see first, then hit. Our hitters have to have more faith that the setter is going to get the ball in their hands."
That will especially benefit Rivera on the outside, Giacomazzi said.
"As the other team focuses on our middles more, Grecia can hit more one-on-one. Grecia's a lot more effective against one than against two. She's able to get a lot more out of every set than everybody else because of her experience. She has a lot of duck with her quack."
UTPB (5-10) led the first match, 10-8, to prompt a timeout by Wayland that got the Pioneers refocused. It was tied at 21-all when Hawkins got a kill then combined with Jacobsma on a block. The Pioneers finished it off with kills by Hawkins and Jacobsma.
After being challenged a bit by the Falcons in the first set, Wayland took command of the match the rest of the way.
The second set was tied at 6-all when Wayland began pulling away, and the third set was never close after Wayland took a 10-3 lead.
In addition to her team-best 17 digs, Westerman had 39 assists. Libero
Mercades Torres added 15 digs while Driskill had Wayland's only solo block and two of the team's eight block assists.
The Pioneers, who get a rematch with UTPB in Odessa on Oct. 15, return to Sooner Athletic Conference play at 7 p.m. Friday against league newcomer Texas Wesleyan (12-11, 4-1), which is in second place in the SAC, a half-game ahead of Wayland (3-1). Both teams' only losses have been to OBU, with Texas Wesleyan's loss coming in Fort Worth, 25-15, 29-27, 25-23.
"We're giving them a lot of respect," Giacomazzi said of the Lady Rams. "We're going on the road, so that's always a little more of a challenge, two or three points against us right when we step off the bus. We have to overcome that by eliminating the errors on our side of the net.
"Our challenge most matches is not so much the other team but ourselves. (Against UTPB) we had three service errors and four or five hitting errors in the first set. There's 10 points. If we can take care of our side of the net it will make it a lot more interesting match and take a lot more stress off the coaching staff."
Wayland is 5-9 all-time against TWU, although the Pioneers won their most recent match-up last season, 3-1, after splitting in 2011. The Lady Rams knocked Wayland out of the regional tournament in 2007, Giacomazzi's first season at Wayland.
Wayland then heads to Waxahachie to take on another SAC newbie, Southwest Assemblies of God University, at 11 a.m. Saturday. SAGU (10-8, 3-3) won its first three conference matches against Mid-America Christian, St. Gregory's and Southwestern Christian before losing its last three to OBU, John Brown and Oklahoma City.
"They're a solid program," Giacomazzi said of SAGU. "We both played at the Kansas Wesleyan Tournament and both teams came away 4-0. They've been one of the better teams in the Red River Conference."
Wayland leads the all-time series with SAGU, 5-3, although the teams haven't played since 2008.
NOTE: Wednesday's match started the second annual Block for the Cure campaign in which WBU head coach
Jim Giacomazzi will donate $5 for each block the Pioneers record during their five home matches in October. Wayland had five team blocks against UTPB. The money will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches' Top 25 Poll (Oct. 1)
|
RANK |
LAST WEEK |
SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) |
2013 RECORD* |
TOTAL POINTS |
|
1 |
1 |
Concordia (Calif.) (22) |
11-0 |
653 |
|
2 |
2 |
Texas at Brownsville (1) |
12-0 |
632 |
|
3 |
3 |
Biola (Calif.) |
12-0 |
611 |
|
4 |
4 |
Madonna (Mich.) |
20-0 |
590 |
|
5 |
6 |
MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) |
15-1 |
546 |
|
6 |
7 |
Northwestern (Iowa) |
21-1 |
544 |
|
7 |
5 |
Midland (Neb.) |
22-1 |
533 |
|
8 |
8 |
Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) |
18-0 |
511 |
|
9 |
9 |
Park (Mo.) |
18-2 |
480 |
|
10 |
10 |
Westmont (Calif.) |
14-2 |
455 |
|
11 |
11 |
Eastern Oregon |
17-2 |
448 |
|
12 |
12 |
Oklahoma Baptist |
14-4 |
426 |
|
13 |
15 |
Bellevue (Neb.) |
20-3 |
378 |
|
14 |
14 |
Embry-Riddle (Fla.) |
10-5 |
376 |
|
15 |
13 |
Missouri Baptist |
16-1 |
373 |
|
16 |
19 |
Dordt (Iowa) |
12-4 |
315 |
|
16 |
21 |
The Master's (Calif.) |
12-3 |
315 |
|
18 |
18 |
Georgetown (Ky.) |
15-4 |
285 |
|
19 |
20 |
Concordia (Ore.) |
14-2 |
261 |
|
20 |
17 |
Vanguard (Calif.) |
12-4 |
259 |
|
21 |
22 |
Wayland Baptist (Texas) |
16-3 |
226 |
|
22 |
16 |
Columbia (Mo.) |
10-4 |
211 |
|
23 |
25 |
Grand View (Iowa) |
12-8 |
147 |
|
24 |
23 |
Hastings (Neb.) |
14-6 |
137 |
|
25 |
RV |
Cal State San Marcos |
18-7 |
111 |
Others receiving votes: Viterbo (Wis.) 107;Davenport (Mich.) 95; Trinity Christian (Ill.) 84;Montana State-Northern 60;Indiana Wesleyan 56;Bryan (Tenn.) 42;Spring Hill (Ala.) 38;Rocky Mountain (Mont.) 34;Cornerstone (Mich.) 31;Campbellsville (Ky.) 11;Jamestown (N.D.) 7;Menlo (Calif.) 5;Kansas Wesleyan 5;Evangel (Mo.) 5;Tabor (Kan.) 4.
