Box Score CANYON – West Texas A&M ended Wayland Baptist's seven-match win streak as the Lady Buffaloes defeated the Pioneers in non-conference volleyball action here Tuesday night, 25-17, 25-20, 25-11.
"It was bad, and not just one person or a few people, but everybody," Wayland coach
Jim Giacomazzi said. "We prepared well to come here; we had the game plan. We just didn't execute the skills necessary to be successful tonight."
After last weekend reaching the 20-win plateau for the eighth time in the last nine years, Wayland (21-6) – which is tied for the equivalent of 34
th in this week's NAIA Top 25 poll – was toppled in three for the third time this season. The first two sweeps came at the hands of then top-ranked Park (Mo.) and current No. 2 Missouri Baptist.
WTAMU improved to 11-10.
Wayland, which was trying to match its season-best eight-match win streak to start the season, hit just .110 in the match, ending with 33 kills, while the Lady Buffs hit .275 with 40 kills. With 13,
Shahala Hawkins was the only Pioneer with more than seven kills. Wayland had just two block assists, both by Hawkins and
Cindy Horn, and recorded no aces.
Rossanna Ramos,
Emily Welch and
Machala Noack all ended with double-digit digs, getting 14, 11 and 10, respectively.
Tyler Gasaloga dished out 14 assists and Welch 13.
"Neither team really played to their potential," Giacomazzi said. "Our serve-receive was disastrous. That's really frustrating."
Wayland was without senior
Cat Wiechmann, who's been nursing an injury the last few matches.
"That makes a big difference," Giacomazzi said.
The Pioneers led only a few times in the match, early in the second set. Wayland's largest lead was two, 5-3, and its last lead was 12-11 before the Lady Buffs scored five unanswered points. WBU pulled to within 19-18, but never could tie it again.
In the first set, the Lady Buffs scored the first four points and Wayland never caught up. In the third it was all WT, which ran off stretches of seven straight and later nine straight points to take a 19-4 lead. Wayland hit just .050 in the set, compared to WT's .425.
"It's hard to put a finger on what went wrong," Giacomazzi said. "It was a frustrating night, one that we will soon forget so we can move on. If we dwell on this we won't be able to accomplish what we want."
Wayland, after hosting Mid-America Christian (13-9, 4-8) at 7 p.m. Friday, faces a showdown with No. 24 Oklahoma City (16-5, 11-0) at 11 a.m. Saturday in a match that will decide the top two seeds for the SAC playoffs, and thus the right to host the championship. (This season the higher seed hosts matches in the SAC playoffs instead of one school hosting an entire tournament.)
"We're so focused on OCU right now everything else is a distraction," Giacomazzi said.
The Pioneers, the defending SAC champions, fell to the Stars in Oklahoma City last month, 16-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-20.
This weekend is Block Out Cancer weekend for the Pioneers, who will donate $5 for every block they make Friday and Saturday to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Fans also will have a chance to donate to Susan G. Komen at the matches. Representatives of Covenant Health of Plainview will be on hand Saturday to promote breast cancer awareness.
Fans are encouraged to wear pink to this weekend's matches.
