Box Score The 23
rd-ranked Wayland Baptist volleyball team opened both its home schedule and defense of its Sooner Athletic Conference championship in fine fashion Friday night in Hutcherson Center, dropping Southwestern Christian in three, 25-13, 25-19, 25-11.
"They played well," WBU coach
Jim Giacomazzi said of his team. "We worked on blocking this past week and had some good results in that department."
The dominant win ended a two-match losing skid for Wayland (10-3, 1-0 SAC), which spent last weekend in Missouri playing some of the top teams in the country.
Against Southwestern Christian (4-9, 0-1), the Pioneers had little resistance, pulling away midway through the first set and never looking back the rest of the match.
Wayland was seldom behind, and seldom for long. Still, Giacomazzi said the Eagles are much-improved over last season
"We had to do a good job on our side of the court. When we made a mistake they were able to make a run of four or five points, especially in that first set, and make us pay," Giacomazzi said.
"They gave us some balls that were challenging and we did a good job keeping the ball up in play. Some balls we had to pursue and keep off the floor and the team did a good job chasing them down.
"I was very pleased with the hustle on defense."
Shahala Hawkins ended with 14 kills in 19 swings with no errors for a .737 hitting percentage. Hawkins also had two solo blocks and five block-assists as the Pioneers ended with nine stuffs compared to none for Southwestern Christian.
Chelsey Driskill ended with three block assists
Wayland had 32 digs, led by
Rossanna Ramos with six.
Southwestern Christian hit a negative .066.
The Pioneers hit the road again Tuesday to take on UT-Permian Basin in Odessa.
"They will be a good test. It's been a challenge for us to have success at their place. They always put forth a great effort against us," Giacomazzi said. "We have to go in with guns blazing and our defense sharp and also get better results from our swings from all of our hitters."
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