Box Score WAXAHACHIE, Texas – In mid-September, the then-ranked No.13 Wayland Baptist volleyball team hosted Southwestern Assemblies of God in its second Sooner Athletic Conference match looking to get an easy win over the Lions. The Pioneers took SAGU for granted and were upset, three sets to two, so Wayland went into Friday's rematch with the Lions looking for a little redemption. Wayland was able to do just that, dominating the match, 25-17, 25-19 and 25-16, in route to a 3-0 sweep.
Wayland (14-9, 7-2), who climbed in the NAIA top-25 poll for the first time this season on Tue., moving up to the 22
nd spot in the rankings, had to battle with the Lions for the first 20 points of the first set before finally pulling away.
Southwestern Assemblies of God (11-11, 5-5) took the first point of the match after a serving error by the Pioneers, and continued to stick around. Wayland quickly took the lead after back-to-back kills from
Shahala Hawkins, but SAGU's Mollie McBride put down a kill of her own to even the score, 2-2.
The Lions tied the set up three more times, even taking the lead once, but after a Wayland attack error brought SAGU within a point, 11-10, the Pioneers broke away, never looking back.
Wayland went on a 7-2 run to give itself a comfortable 18-12 lead. The Lions got back into form to end the set, but it was too little too late as the Pioneers took the first set, 25-16.
Knowing the danger of falling down two sets to none, SAGU clawed their way to 14-13 lead in the second set, causing the Pioneers to play catch up.
Although it wasn't ideal, Wayland managed just fine, regaining the lead on a Hawkins' kill, going up 18-17, which was in the middle of a 6-0 run for the Pioneers.
The Lions pushed two more points, but once again the big run proved too much and Wayland took the second set, 25-19.
In the third set, the Lions took the first point, but it was all Wayland after that. The Pioneers put together a 6-1 run to put some space between them and SAGU and kept their foot on the gas, taking the third set, 25-17.
The Pioneers out hit the Lions, 42 kills to 32, but perhaps the most impressive stat in Friday's match was that WBU had 11 more digs than Southwestern, 63 compared to 52. Going into the match, SAGU was ranked sixth in the NAIA in digs per game, averaging almost 19 digs per game.
"I was really happy about our digs today," head coach
Jim Giacomazzi said. "We out-dug the number six team in the country in digs. Those stats are also a reflection on our hitting percentage because we're picking up balls that were kills in the middle of the season."
As a team, the Pioneers hit .303, which is 71 points higher than their season average. Hawkins led all players with 16 kills on a .484 hitting percentage, while
Chelsey Driskill added eight kills and
Cindy Horn and
Morgan Seaton had seven kills apiece.
In addition to Wayland's offensive parody, four Pioneers recorded 10-plus digs, while Mercedes Torres had seven digs and Hawkins had five.
T-Keeyah Hall,
Ashlyn Westerman and
Cat Wiechmann all had 11 digs, while
Emily Welch led the team with 13. Welch also put down a game-high four aces for Wayland.
"As a team, we're getting stronger every time we play," Giacomazzi said. "Our distribution and decision making is better, so our results are better. We're making better choices throughout the match and our errors have gone down a lot, which is what we wanted to see.
"We want to get to the point where we're not only playing well, but where we can win the last match of the year. We also want to be ranked in the top-18, but to do that we have to have significant wins against conference opponents, so we can't take anyone lightly."
The Pioneers next match is against Texas Wesleyan at 1 p.m. Saturday in Fort Worth before returning home to take on the Chinese national team in an exhibition match at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Hutcherson Center.
