Box Score After losing in four in Arkansas, the Wayland Baptist volleyball team was determined not to let it happen again when John Brown University visited Hutcherson Center on Saturday morning.
It didn't…not even close.
No. 22 Wayland rolled over the Golden Eagles, 25-23, 25-16, 25-22, to improve to 17-9 overall and 10-2 in Sooner Athletic Conference play as the Pioneers kept pace with league-leading Oklahoma Baptist.
"I was very pleased," WBU coach
Jim Giacomazzi said following his team's eighth win in a row.
John Brown got the best of the Pioneers when they met a month ago in Siloam Springs, but the Golden Eagles (17-9, 7-5) had no such luck Saturday. Wayland was coming off a somewhat lackluster three-set win over St. Gregory's University on Friday night, but the Pioneers were more on point some 14 hours later.
"We're starting to get to that point in the season where we're doing things that we've been talking about all year," Giacomazzi said.
Wayland won Saturday in three distinct ways: by fighting off a John Brown comeback in the first set, by blowing out the Golden Eagles late in the second set, and by coming from behind in the third set.
In the opener, the Pioneers led 24-18, but the Golden Eagles fought off six matches points to pull to within a point. That prompted a timeout by Wayland, which led to a set-saving kill by
Chelsey Driskill as Wayland survived, 25-23.
Set No. 2 initially was a back-and-forth battle as Wayland jumped out to a 7-2 lead only to have John Brown tie it at 14. From there, though, the Pioneers dominated, running off six straight points in a run that featured a pair of kills by
Katie Inman as part of a 11-2 set-ending spurt.
The final set saw John Brown tally the first four points, prompting an early timeout by the Pioneers. The Golden Eagles went on to assume an 8-2 lead before Wayland started slowly climbing its way back in it.
The Pioneers knotted the score at 16, but John Brown started to pull away again by scoring the next three. Wayland answered with three points of its own, and it was back-and-forth from there until kills by
Morgan Seaton and
Shahala Hawkins helped put the Pioneers up 24-21. The Golden Eagles got one more point before a JBU setting error ended it, 25-22.
"The challenge we had at the beginning of the third set was overcome by a lot of hard work and focus," Giacomazzi said. "They buckled down and said, 'We're not going to allow them to win a set.'"
Both teams ended with 39 kills, although Wayland had a higher hitting percentage, .214 vs. .130. Hawkins and Driskill both had 11 kills for the Pioneers, followed by Seaton,
Cindy Horn and Inman with five each. JBU's Audrey Dearien led all players with 15 kills.
Wayland had twice as many blocks as the Golden Eagles, 12-6, with Seaton getting six block-assists and Inman one solo and five block-assists.
Emily Welch finished with 20 digs,
Cat Wiechmann 15 and
Ashlyn Westerman 10 as Wayland out-dug the guests, 63-50. Westerman produced 34 assists.
Giacomazzi commented on his team's more relaxed play.
"After me yelling and screaming and hollering at them most of the season, it was neat to see them having some fun," he said. "It's also good to talk strategy more instead of fixing mechanical issues."
The Pioneers return to the road next week, heading to Oklahoma City to take on third-place Oklahoma City University (17-9, 9-3) at 7 p.m. Friday then Mid-America Christian (3-22, 1-11) at 11 a.m. Saturday. Wayland beat both OCU and MACU in three at home earlier in the season.
Giacomazzi called next week important to Wayland's goal.
"We win the next two matches (and) we're in the driver's seat" heading into the Nov. 7 showdown in Plainview against No. 20 Oklahoma Baptist (20-8, 10-2). "Whoever wins it will be conference champion, which is something we've never done here at Wayland."
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