Box Score
SHAWNEE, Okla. – Jim Giacomazzi enjoyed the raucous atmosphere that his Wayland Baptist Pioneer volleyball team faced while taking on Oklahoma Baptist University here Friday night. It's a good thing, because the coach and his team likely are going to get to experience it again in a couple of weeks.
Hoping to knock off OBU and possibly host the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament, the No. 17 Pioneers instead fell to the eighth-ranked Lady Bison in five, 19-25, 25-21, 25-23, 18-25, 15-10. The win all but assures OBU will host the conference tournament Nov. 15 and 16.
"It was a great environment with a hostile crowd at times, which is something we trained for," Giacomazzi said. "We were prepared."
What they couldn't prepare for, however, were some of the intangibles going against the Pioneers.
"We out-statted them, but the stat that mattered was that last (set), 15-10," Giacomazzi said.
"In a tough match against quality competition, the little things make a big difference," the coach added. "They won in those intangibles. They just got the right points at the right time."
After losing the first two sets when OBU visited Plainview and won in four on Sept. 28, the Pioneers (24-5, 9-2 SAC) took the first set on Friday, 25-19, closing it out on a kill by Claire Jacobsma.
But the Lady Bison (26-4, 12-0) responded in a big way, taking a 4-0 lead in the second set and going up by as many as six before the Pioneers closed the gap to one at 22-21. That prompted a timeout by OBU, and the Lady Bison came back out and won the next three points to even the match.
Wayland had the early advantage in set three, although OBU made a big run on the serve of NAIA All-American Kristin Pressley and rallied for an 18-12 edge. The Pioneers managed to tie it at 19, then went up 21-20 on a combined block by Shahala Hawkins and Jacobsma. But the Lady Bison once again responded to a timely timeout and tallied the next four points, thanks in part to an ace and calls against the visitors of double-contact and into the net. The Pioneers fought off two set points, the last on a block by Hawkins and Cindy Horn, before Hawkins was called for roofing to give OBU the set.
That appeared to doom Wayland, which fell behind 4-1 in the fourth set. But the Pioneers dug down and tied it at 13 before going on to win it, 25-18, on a block by Chelsey Driskill and Mackenzie Clark.
The Pioneers now were headed to a fifth set for the third time in five matches. Wayland was on top, 8-7, when the teams changed sides, but the Pioneers scored just two more points the rest of the way. It was tied 10-10 when OBU ran off the final five points to end the almost 2½-hour match, dropping Wayland to 1-3 in five-setters this season.
"It was a strong match. I was pleased," Giacomazzi said. "The girls stayed focused the whole match. We had a couple of untimely errors in each set, but we overcame them."
Grecia Rivera led Wayland in kills with 17 while hitting .184. She also produced a team-high 23 digs and had one solo block and four block assists. Hawkins had 11 kills and just one error in 23 swings to hit .435. She and Driskill had one solo and five block assists apiece. Clark ended with a dozen kills and hit .286, while Natasha Giacomazzi had 34 assists and 12 digs. Libero Mercades Torres dug 21 balls.
Wayland held the upper hand in most statistics, hitting .168 vs. OBU's .112 with 13 blocks compared to five for the Lady Bison. The Pioneers ended with 89 digs, three more than OBU, although the Lady Bison had nine aces compared to just two for Wayland.
OBU won its 42nd straight conference match despite a shaky performance from Pressley, who had 14 kills but 16 errors in 66 swings for a -.030 hitting percentage.
"We played in a hostile environment and never gave up," Coach Giacomazzi said. "It was encouraging."
While the Pioneers no doubt would have liked to have won and had a chance to host the SAC Tournament, Giacomazzi said it's not a huge deal.
"It doesn't hurt us too much, other than the fact we get to come over here" for the conference tourney, he said. "It was fun. We're peaking at the right time, and hopefully we're even better in a couple of weeks."
The Pioneers return to the court at 11 a.m. Saturday against last-place Southwestern Christian (4-23, 1-11), a team WBU defeated, 25-13, 25-15, 25-15, in their first match-up.
