Box Score Last season the John Brown Golden Eagles knocked off Wayland Baptist in Siloam Springs, Ark. On Saturday morning the Golden Eagles were looking to do it on the Pioneers' home court.
They almost did, but thanks to a gutty performance, No. 21 Wayland pulled out the Sooner Athletic Conference victory in five, 23-25, 25-23, 17-25, 25-23, 15-10.
"We had a target and they wanted to hit the bullseye," Wayland coach
Jim Giacomazzi said after Wayland (13-3, 2-0 SAC) thwarted the upset bid by the Golden Eagles (10-5, 0-2). "They're much-improved over last year."
It was Wayland's first five-set match of the season.
John Brown had Wayland on the ropes, leading 23-22 in the fourth set and intent on stealing the victory. But Wayland responded with back-to-back kills by
Shahala Hawkins and
Mallorie Ellis, then an attack error by the Golden Eagles forced a fifth set.
"Every set we had a four- or five-point lead, but we shot ourselves in the foot with errors," Giacomazzi said. "Fortunately we got a fourth set and then a fifth."
The fifth started out all Wayland as the Pioneers jumped out to a 6-1 lead on the strength of three kills by
Cindy Horn. John Brown closed to within a point on three occasions, the last time at 9-8, but a kill by Hawkins and two by
Chelsey Driskill gave Wayland some breathing room. A kill by Ellis and a hitting error by JBU made it match-point.
Finally, after almost 2½ hours, Horn put it away with a final smash.
Giacomazzi said the Pioneers made some rotation adjustments after dropping the third set 25-17 that made the difference.
"(JBU) hit a lot of balls cross-court, and some of our blockers started doing a better job slowing the ball down," he said, mentioning Driskill and Stohlmann for taking the lead. "Those two made the adjustment the fastest."
Hawkins ended with 23 kills and hit .346 while Driskill got 15 and Horn a dozen. Wayland wound up with 99 digs, with five players in double-digits, led by
Rossanna Ramos with 27 and followed by
Cat Wiechmann with 19, Ellis and Horn with 15 each, and
Emily Welch with 10. Wayland put down 11 blocks, with Hawkins getting three solo and three assists. Driskill recorded four assists and Horn and
Jessica Stohlmann three apiece. Wiechmann finished with 33 assists and Welch 23.
"It was very pleasant to see the adjustments, not only on the blocking but the hitting as well," Giacomazzi said. "Defensively we came up with some very good plays. We were one dig short of 100, which shows we got to more balls before they hit the floor."
After struggling early with serve-receive, Giacomazzi said WBU also improved in that area as the match went forward.
"We're usually a pretty good serve-receive team, so that was a little disappointing until the fourth and fifth sets," he said. "They were able to keep the ball in play."
Much like Friday night when Wayland took down winless Bacone in three, the Pioneers came out of the gates lacking their usual enthusiasm.
"The last two times we started out kind of flat, then they got energized," Giacomazzi said. "That got the crowd energized; they were great. The electricity that was in there was terrific.
"It was good to see the girls smiling and working hard."
The Pioneers can't afford a slow start when they hit the road for Oklahoma City next weekend. Wayland takes on Mid-America Christian (8-3, 1-2) at 7 p.m. Friday then Oklahoma City (7-3, 2-0) at 11 a.m. Saturday. OCU is ranked the equivalent of 32
nd,
"We're going to have to go I with that energy at the very beginning," Giacomazzi said. "It'll be a dogfight with OCU. They've played some very tough competition this year and have had some tough losses. They're a much different team than last year."
