Volleyball seeks to take guesswork out of nationals bid

Looked at one way, the Wayland Baptist Pioneers are on the bubble when it comes to whether they would qualify for the NAIA National Championships. Looked at another way – which is the only angle coach Jim Giacomazzi currently sees it – the Pioneers are right where they want to be: in control of their own destiny.
 
Outside of hosting the national tournament, teams can qualify for the national championships in one of two ways: either by winning their conference tournament or by earning an at-large bid. Counting on receiving one of the handful of at-large bids can be a bit iffy, especially now that Wayland – on the heels of ending the regular-season with two 3-0 wins – unexpectedly slipped from a season-high No. 15 to No. 19 in the Tachikara-NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll.
 
"We're on the bubble, I believe," Giacomazzi said of whether Wayland would receive an at-large bid. "Last year it went all the way up to (the 24^th-ranked team receiving an at-large bid). But right now there are a bunch of teams ranked below us that are winning their conference. We need teams ranked in front of us to win their conference."
 
Counting on other teams is never a solid strategy, which is why Giacomazzi wants to take all of the guesswork out of it and go with the guaranteed way into the national championships, which is by winning the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament this weekend in Shawnee, Okla.
 
"We're going with the notion we have to win this tournament," Giacomazzi said. "Our destiny is in our own hands, and you can't ask any more than that. We have a chance to take care of it ourselves and not have to wait for anybody."
 
That objective won't be easy since the conference title runs through tournament host Oklahoma Baptist University. The Lady Bison (30-5) are ranked seventh in the nation and already have beaten Wayland (29-5) twice this season, once in four sets and the last time in five in Shawnee. In fact, OBU has defeated the Pioneers the last 11 times they've met.
 
But before Wayland can start thinking about a much-anticipated rematch in the championship at 2 p.m. Saturday against OBU, the Pioneers – who as the No. 2 seed earned a first-round bye – must take care of business in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday against either third-seeded Texas Wesleyan (18-17) or sixth-seeded Southwestern Assemblies of God University (15-15), which square off in the first round on Friday morning.
 
"In the locker room on the white board is a question, 'What is the most important game this week?' The only answer that is correct was whoever we play Friday night," Giacomazzi said in stressing the importance of not looking ahead to OBU.
 
"They understand the order of business," he said of his team. "We're not looking forward to anything."
 
Giacomazzi said he has no preference as to which team Wayland meets in the semis, except saying he'd like to see Texas Wesleyan and SAGU play a five-setter so their players will be more spent when they take on the Pioneers later that day.
 
"I hope it goes as long as possible," he said.
 
In Wayland's 14 conference wins, the only team to take a set off the Pioneers was Texas Wesleyan, and that was by a close 25-23 count.
 
Assuming Wayland and OBU meet up again in the finals, Giacomazzi said there's no doubt the Pioneers will be ready.
 
"We've been preparing for OBU since February, so we know what to do," he said. "They're always there and somebody we respect. They're mentioned every day in practice. They're a team we're very familiar with."
 
Giacomazzi said the Lady Bison have "mutated to a different team than we thought they were going to be. Last year if you stopped (Kathryn) Pressley you won, but this year Pressley hasn't always been the No. 1 player on their team. She hit low numbers against us.
 
"Teams that have had success against them have been able to neutralize her to a certain extent and been able to minimize their own errors," the coach added. "We've done the first part, but shot ourselves in the foot on the second part.
 
"The challenge we have is taking care of business on our side of the court. Our serve-receive has to be better, the quality of our serves has to be better. The last time we played we won every statistical category except serve receive." (OBU had nine aces compared to three for Wayland).
 
Giacomazzi said the season has come down to an aspect that is "more mental than anything else. Physically we're healthy, and we've improved mentally a lot over the season. Now it's a matter of stopping the other team's point runs and having our point runs go longer."
 
If they can do that, Wayland will wind up with its first SAC Tournament title since 2008, which is the only time the Pioneers have won it. If that happens, WBU will qualify for the NAIA National Championships for the very first time. (Wayland didn't make it in 2008 because at the time the SAC Tournament champion had to face the regular-season winner for the right to advance, and Lubbock Christian University prevailed.)
 
"We're at the point of the season where we have the cake, it's just deciding how to mix the frosting," Giaomazzi said. "Hopefully, we put the right combination out there and it'll be sweet going down."
 
NOTE: The final Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches' Top 25 Poll will be announced at 5 p.m. CST Sunday, along with the 36 qualifiers in the NAIA Volleyball National Championship. The 24-team opening round pairings (12 teams earn first-round byes), to be played Saturday, Nov. 23, will be announced at noon Monday via a live graphical show on www.NAIA.org. The 12 opening-round matches will be played at campus sites. Wayland has submitted a bid to host one of those matches should the Pioneers qualify. Along with the 12 teams awarded first-round byes, the 12 opening-round winners advance to play at the national championship final site Dec. 3-7 in Sioux City, Iowa.
 
  First Round
10 a.m. - #3 Texas Wesleyan (18-17) vs. #6 Southwestern Assemblies of God (15-15)
1 p.m. - #4 Oklahoma City (18-13) vs. #5 John Brown (15-18)
Semifinals
4 p.m. – TWU/SAGU winner vs. #2 Wayland Baptist (29-5)
7 p.m. – OCU/JBU winner vs. #1 Oklahoma Baptist (30-5)
Saturday, Nov. 16
Championship, 2 p.m.