Box Score SHAWNEE, Okla. – In what could be their last trip to Shawnee, the Wayland Baptist volleyball team is leaving town on top.
The No. 25 Pioneers dramatically recorded the last five points of the match to knock off the 14
th-ranked Lady Bison in five sets here Friday night, 22-25, 25-16, 24-26, 26-24, 16-14.
"This is such an emotional win," Wayland coach
Jim Giacomazzi said.
Through the years, Giacomazzi has made no secret about his desire to defeat Oklahoma Baptist, something Wayland volleyball hasn't done since 2009. While the Pioneers downed OBU the first five times the programs met, the Lady Bison had won the last dozen matches in a row.
And, with OBU leaving the Sooner Athletic Conference for NCAA Division II after this season, there's a chance that Wayland and Oklahoma Baptist won't meet after this year, so this may have been the Pioneers' last opportunity to win in Shawnee.
"This," Giacomazzi said, "is sweet."
Making it even sweeter is the fact that OBU had won 53 regular-season SAC matches in a row!
Having battled back-and-forth the entire evening, the teams went to a decisive fifth set with the momentum on Wayland's side after the Pioneers squeaked out the fourth set, 26-24. WBU kept the energy by taking a 6-4 lead, but the Lady Bison tallied five straight points to gain a 9-6 edge.
Wayland fell behind by four, 11-7, before the Pioneers ran off their own streak of three straight points to pull to within one. From there, OBU appeared on its way to serve out the match, but a kill by
Cindy Horn kept Wayland in it. Still, the Lady Bison were in control at match point, 14-11.
Then, as if the Pioneers knew they may never get another shot at winning in Shawnee, they came to life.
A rotation error on OBU gave Wayland the ball down by two, then a kill by
Shahala Hawkins made it a one-point difference and prompted a Lady Bison timeout. That was followed by a combined block by
Chelsey Driskill and Horn before an ace by Hawkins suddenly put the shoe on the other foot and gave Wayland match point.
Following a second Lady Bison timeout, an attack error on OBU abruptly ended it. The Pioneer bench erupted and a boisterous Noble Arena crowd home went home disappointed, their team's eight-match winning streak – and their dominance over the Pioneers – a thing of the past.
"This helps in so many ways," Giacomazzi said. "It helps boost our confidence, and helps affirm the hard work they've been putting in the last 10-12 days to get ready for this. But more than anything else this is a mental win. They had to come from behind."
It was a battle for both clubs all night.
OBU took the first set, 25-22, after the score was knotted at 21. An overturned call that went against Wayland helped the Lady Bison notch four of the final five points in that one.
Wayland came back with a vengeance, though, controlling the second set from the start and rolling to a 25-16 triumph after it was tied at 11.
The teams traded several leads in the third, with Wayland owning as much as a three-point advantage, the last time at 20-17. The Lady Bison went on a 4-0 run to go ahead by one, and it was tied at 24 when OBU ended the match with back-to-back kills.
In set No. 4, an ace by
T-Keeyah Hall put the Pioneers up 18-16, and some excellent defense by Hall prior to a block by Hawkins and
Morgan Seaton made it 22-20. A tip by Hawkins gave Wayland match point at 24-21, but the Lady Bison – despite back-to-back Wayland timeouts – rallied by scoring three unanswered to tie it.
Hawkins came up with a kill to put Wayland back ahead, then a block by Hawkins and Horn sent the Pioneers into their seventh fifth-set match of the season.
The Pioneers now are 3-4 in five-setters.
Four Pioneers ended with double-digit kills, led by Hawkins with 26 as she hit a team-best .311. Freshman
Morgan Seaton, on the heels of producing a career-high 11 kills against Texas-Permian Basin on Tuesday, came up with 17 while hitting .240.
"Morgan had a great match the other night and she topped it tonight," Giacomazzi said. "It's neat to see the way the freshmen are coming along."
Driskill added 13 kills and Horn 10.
"I'm so proud of Cindy. She's been in my doghouse, but she's starting to see the light of day," Giacomazzi said. "We have to have her in order for us to play at the level we played at tonight."
Wayland ended with 121 digs, which Giacomazzi called "way above our average."
Emily Welch led the way with 30 – more than double her previous best – followed by
Cat Wiechmann with 24,
Ashlyn Westerman with 16, Hall with 14 and
Mercades Torres with nine. Even Hawkins and Driskill came up with eight digs each while Seaton had six. Those were career-highs for Wiechmann, Westerman, Hall, Driskill and Seaton.
"We're developing into a team," Giacomazzi said.
The Pioneers outblocked the Lady Bison, 12-9½, with Hawkins getting one solo and six assists. Seaton wound up with five assists while Driskill had one solo and four assists. Westerman finished with 57 assists.
"They're getting rewarded for their hard work," Giacomazzi said.
The coach said the Pioneers are starting to come into their own.
"Every serve matters, every point matters, and they're starting to see that. They're starting to coach themselves now."
The next step, he said, is for the team to play every match with the same urgency it plays the big ones.
"Everyone we play has to be OBU, or (defending national champion) UT-Brownsville, or Columbia (Mo.). As we have that attitude we're going to be dominating."
Wayland won't have long to celebrate it's big win as the Pioneers head to Bethany, Okla., to take on Southwestern Christian (8-12, 1-6) at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Lady Eagles are coming off their first SAC victory, a five-set win over Mid-America Christian on Tuesday.
"I told the girls to enjoy this tonight then it's back to work tomorrow," Giacomazzi said. "In reality we haven't done anything yet because we're still in second place."
The conference regular-season title could come down to the final match of the regular-season when Wayland hosts OBU on Nov. 7. The first-place team earns the right to host the conference tournament, although OBU is not eligible to host this year because of its pending move out of the NAIA.
