Box Score Chelsey Driskill,
Shahala Hawkins,
Emily Welch and
Cat Wiechmann aren't going to go down easily. The four Wayland Baptist senior volleyball players proved that Wednesday night in the semifinals of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals.
Driskill, Hawkins, Welch and Wiechmann willed the Pioneers to a come-from-behind, 22-25, 25-13, 25-18, 25-18 victory over John Brown University (Ark.), advancing WBU to the tournament finals to defend their crown against Oklahoma City University at 11 a.m. Saturday back at Hutcherson Center.
Wayland coach
Jim Giacomazzi said his four seniors were the difference in the outcome of Wednesday's match against fourth-seeded John Brown (22-15), which won the first game against the top-seeded but jittery Pioneers (28-7).
"Who wants to lose their final match as a senior?" Giacomazzi asked. "I told those four seniors that they could control what happens. They all looked at it with determination."
They pretty well did just that.
Wayland's two all-Americans – Hawkins and Driskill – had 21 and 18 kills, respectively, while hitting .425 and .405 and coming for one solo and eight block assists. Welch turned 21 assists and 14 digs while Wiechmann recorded 11 digs.
"That was a great night for those seniors," Giacomazzi said.
But it didn't start out that way as the Golden Eagles jumped out to a 7-1 lead.
Giacomazzi chalked it up to nerves.
"We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit with several errors right in the beginning, and (JBU) had a very good first set with 17 kills and not very many errors," the coach said. (JBU's Audrey) Dearien had a great first set, and so did (Libby) Blasingame. They started out really hot. Those two seniors came out ready to go."
The Pioneers were able to cut the deficit to one, and although Wayland wound up dropping the first set, Giacomazzi could tell his team – especially the seniors – was finding its rhythm.
"Halfway through the first set they started getting into their zone," he said. "They started to relax and started getting into their groove.
"Our first set was our worst passing set, then after that we pretty well ran away with it. It helped that our serves started hitting their location and put them in locations where we could predict where the sets were going."
The second set was tied at 4-all when Wayland won the next three points. After that it was never close again.
John Brown managed to keep set three tight a little longer, tied at 10. But with
Rossanna Ramos serving, the Pioneers rattled off seven answered points to take control once again. The run featured a pair of aces by Ramos and kills by Hawkins,
Katie Inman and
Cindy Horn.
The fourth set saw the Golden Eagles up 10-6, but Wayland again pieced together a nice run, which featured five unanswered points to kick off an 8-1 spurt. Hawkins contributed a pair of kills, Inman got one and Horn tallied an ace.
JBU kept it close, within 17-16, when the Pioneers rolled off five more unanswered, featuring kills by Driskill, Horn and Hawkins. Wayland finished it off by scoring the final three of the match, including an uncommon kill by Gasaloga and a very common kill by Hawkins to end it.
Besides the aforementioned highlights for the four seniors, other telling stats included Horn with 10 kills, Gasaloga with 27 assists, Ramos with 25 digs,
Jessica Stohlmann with four block-assists, and Inman with one solo and two block-assists.
"We had a good blocking night," Giacomazzi said. "Not only did we have 11 blocks but we got a lot of good touch-blocks, and they didn't score much off of our blockers. We had three different players with solo blocks, and if not for some ball-handling errors (against JBU) we would have had a couple more."
The Pioneers, ranked the equivalent of 28
th, now turn their sights on second-seeded OCU (21-7), which took out third-seeded Texas Wesleyan (24-11) on Wednesday, 25-10, 25-22, 25-15. Wayland lost to Stars on the road in four before beating then 24
th-ranked OCU in five in Plainview on Oct. 24. The Stars now are ranked the equivalent of 40
th.
"They have a lot of players that have some offense, and they play a good defense and have a good block," Giacomazzi said of OCU. "The key for us is to stop their middles, especially Manon Soraru."
The winner of that 11 a.m. Saturday match earns an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championships, while the loser likely will be left out of the field. Wayland is seeking its third straight trip to nationals.
"It's a must-win," Giacomazzi said. "We have to take care of business on our side of the net. I'd like to see our outsides be a little more productive. If they can get a consistent block that's going to help us a whole lot."
It will also help if Wayland's four seniors maintain their don't-want-it-to-end attitude.
"Hopefully that becomes contagious," Giacomazzi said. "Hopefully everyone can pick up that tough, mental edge that you have to have for post-season play."
