Box Score SHAWNEE, Okla. – Earning a first-round bye allowed the Wayland Baptist Pioneers to rest a bit before their semifinal match Friday afternoon against Texas Wesleyan in the semifinals of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament. The Lady Rams, meanwhile, didn't have a bye and, apparently, used their first-round match to get good and warm for Wayland.
As a result, it took the 19
th-ranked Pioneers a set to warm up to the Lady Rams' level, which they ultimately did to advance to the championship with a 20-25, 25-19, 25-14, 25-19 victory.
"Like molasses in the winter," WBU coach
Jim Giacomazzi said of his team's slow start. "It was ugly. We just needed to get a little lubrication out there, I guess."
Wayland (30-5) advances to play top-seeded, seventh-ranked Oklahoma Baptist (31-5), the tournament host which won its semifinal over fourth-seeded Oklahoma City University, 25-16, 28-26, 19-25, 25-23, in the championship at 2 p.m. Saturday. The winner automatically advances to the NAIA National Tournament. If Wayland wins, the Pioneers will set a new school record for number of wins in a season. If Wayland loses, the Pioneers will have to hope to receive an apparent fleeting at-large bid to nationals.
The Lady Bison have defeated the Pioneers the last 11 meetings, although Wayland took them to five in their last attempt in Shawnee.
"We seem to match up well with OCU, but we even match up well with OBU," Giacomazzi said. "We've done a fantastic job against them."
The Pioneers didn't do such a fantastic job against Texas Wesleyan (19-18), at least not at first.
Wayland fell behind in the first set, 4-0, and trailed 15-6 before rallying to get to within two at 21-19. But the Lady Rams tallied four of the next five points to hand the Pioneers just their fifth opening-set loss of the season.
"Over the years we've been coming to the tournament, the second seed loses a lot" in the semifinals, said Giacomazzi, whose team added to that streak last season by knocking off second-seeded Lubbock Christian University. "So I was cautiously optimistic, but we had to actually work. We had to perform."
The Pioneers committed 16 errors in the first set. When that happens, Giacomazzi said, "Anybody can beat us."
But Wayland cleaned up the mistakes and committed just eight errors the rest of the match. The Pioneers also picked up their blocking after recording just three in the first set. The Pioneers ended with 14 blocks, compared to just three for Texas Wesleyan.
"Those are some things we had to adjust to," Giacomazzi said.
Leading Wayland's charge was
Cindy Horn, who according to her coach had the match of her career with 13 kills and a team-leading .417 hitting percentage.
"I was tickled to death to see Cindy do as well as she did," Giacomazzi said. "I was kind of hoping that would happen about 10-12 matches ago, but it's happening at the right time."
Grecia Rivera also picked up her play after the first set when she had five kills but also five errors. Rivera was saddled with just one error the rest of the way and ended with a team-high 15 kills along with 10 digs.
"She really stepped it up a lot after that first set," Giaomazzi said.
The coach also praised freshman libero
Mercades Torres, who came up with a team-high 16 digs.
"She did a super job keeping the ball off the floor."
Hawkins finished with eight kills and hit .381 to go along with three solo blocks and three block assists.
Claire Jacobsma added six kills, and
Chelsey Driskill contributed a pair of solo blocks and five assists.
"When Cindy and Claire step it up, we're hard to beat," Jacobsma said.
After never leading in the first set, Wayland never trailed in set No. 2. Texas Wesleyan did keep it close, however, and trailed just 21-19 before the Pioneers scored the final four points on kills by Rivera and Jacobsma and a pair of Lady Ram errors.
The third set wasn't close as WBU got off to a fast start and led, 6-1. The Pioneers appeared to be in control after hitting .563 and winning No. 3, 25-14.
But Texas Wesleyan didn't go down quietly. The Lady Rams led, although never by more than a point, in the early stages until Wayland went ahead, 7-5. TWU got within 19-18, but the Pioneers – once more led by kills from Rivera and Jacobsma – again finished strong, scoring six of the final seven points to close out the match.
Wayland hit .213 overall compared to .080 for the Lady Rams.
Giacomazzi was happy Wayland was able to pull together after the rare first-set loss, but said the Pioneers can't afford a slow start against OBU on Saturday.
"We'll clean some things up, like our serve receive and decision making," he said in advance of a third chance to topple OBU.
"The third time's the charm."
