Box Score Playing in their fifth match in just three days, the Pioneers drew No. 7 Columbia (Mo.) for the final match of the Coca-Cola Classic Saturday afternoon. The
Cougars dropped the NAIA Match of the Week to No. 2 UT-Brownsville in their first match of the day, but came back to sweep the 11
th-ranked Pioneers, 3-0, in their second top-25 matchup of the day.
"Columbia is a solid team with a lot of quality players," head coach
Jim Giacomazzi said of the Cougars. "They make very few mistakes and were able to take advantage of our miscues."
The Cougars (13-1) won the first two sets fairly easily, 25-19 and 25-11, before finishing the Pioneers off, 25-22 a hard-fought final set.
In the third set, the Pioneers (7-6) owned a four-point lead on four different occasions, but down 16-12, Columbia went on a 5-0 run to retake the lead, 17-16.
WBU and Columbia changed leads three more times, but in the end the Cougars proved too much for the Pioneers, taking the final set, 25-22.
"They have a couple of players that we couldn't stop at all, including Polina Severina, a six-foot, five inch outside hitter," Giacomazzi said. "We put a couple of girls who are good jumpers with long arms up against her, but we couldn't match her power."
Severina led the Cougars with 12 kills on 19 attempts, hitting a game-high .579. Teammates Brook Simpson and Paula Rosa were second on the team with nine kills apiece, while Manon Soraru was close behind with eight.
Wayland's
Shahala Hawkins led all players with 13 kills and
Chelsey Driskill added nine of her own, but the Pioneers third highest total was three from
Cindy Horn.
It wasn't that WBU's hitters weren't good enough against a ranked team considering its top-three hitters in Friday's match against No. 2 UT-Brownsville had 33, 17 and nine kills from Hawkins, Driskill and Horn, but it was the fact that the Cougar defense showed up in a big way Saturday.
The Cougars held the Pioneers to just an .094 hitting percentage, racking up four blocks and 65 digs.
"Their defense played very well," Giacomazzi said. "We hit some pretty good balls that we thought were going down, but they were picking them up even when they were ankle high."
The Pioneers were looking to their third win against a ranked opponent, but after playing five matches in three days, fatigue started setting in.
"I could see a little fatigue on the girl's faces," Giacomazzi said. "If we're playing well and everybody's healthy we're good to go, but against a team like that you have to be at your best."
Playing in its third premier tournament of the year, Wayland was hoping to go above .500 in tournament play, but got some great experience against the best
teams the NAIA has to offer.
At the tournament, Wayland's Hawkins, Driskill and
Ashlyn Westerman were named to the all-Tournament team.
"This tournament, as well as the others we've played in, did a good job of preparing us for the speed that we need to be cognizant of at the higher levels," Giacomazzi said. "As we get more experience, the game will start to slow down for a lot of players that are new to the college game.
"I reminded several of our freshmen who got a lot of playing time this week that when Shahala and Chelsey were freshmen, they weren't jumping until after the opposing player hit the ball and now look at them.
"Now (the freshmen) recognize what they need to work on because of the pace we've had to play defense and how fast we need to transition from one part of the court to the other, from offense to defense. As our defense gets better, our defense will be unstoppable."
The Pioneers will start gearing up for conference play next week when they host Southwestern Assemblies of God at 7:00 p.m. Friday and Texas Wesleyan at 11:00 a.m. Saturday.
Prior to the Pioneers match on Saturday, Rick Beelby, Kisute Kiboko, Hazel Taylor, and Rodney Wallace will be inducted into Wayland's Hall of Honor at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
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