Bombs away on Bacone! OCU up next

Box Score With their showdown for Sooner Athletic Conference supremacy with Oklahoma City University looming, the Wayland Baptist volleyball team put together one of its most impressive offensive showings of the season on Saturday morning in Hutcherson Center as the Pioneers rolled past Bacone College, 25-9, 25-15, 25-14.
 
"We had a nice offensive day. A lot of players had some fantastic hitting numbers," Wayland coach Jim Giacomazzi said.
 
In posting their ninth consecutive win and eighth straight sweep, the Pioneers (15-7, 8-0 SAC) hit a season-high .384 as five players hit. 400 or better.
 
Leading the charge were Alex Wood with 12 kills (.429), Katie Inman with nine (.500) and Megan Sharratt with seven (.636). Mallorie Ellis played just one set but still registered six kills and hit a team-high .667.
 
"We did some things we haven't done a lot this year. We had a lot of people with good offensive output," Giacomazzi said. "The nice thing is we had some open nets and were able to put the ball in the court."
 
The coach also was happy that he was able to get lots of Pioneers playing time.
 
"Hanna (Fridriksdottir) played both the middle and the right-side, and we moved Sadie (Staton) from the right side to the left so she got to see a little more action," he said. "We're also getting people healthy again, so that's nice to start feeling like a team coming together. As people get healthy it adds to our depth, so we're able to make changes if we have to.
 
"Games like this help. I have a lot more confidence putting others in because they're getting game experience."
 
Rossanna Ramos ended with 16 digs, while Riyana Rakrouki and Elisabeth Piroli got 18 and 15 assists, respectively. Wayland tallied nine aces by six different players. The Pioneers were credited with just two blocks, but Giacomazzi said that part of the game is coming around, too.
 
"We're working on our blocks and still have a ways to go, but we had more touches today than we've had, which is what our goal is. We want to make sure we're in the right position to set up a quality block."
 
Bacone (1-13, 0-8) hit .022 and had 21 kills, 14 of which came from hard-hitting senior Gladymar Echeverria, who hit .303.
 
Next up for the Pioneers is No. 14 OCU (16-3, 7-0), which like Wayland had won eight straight going into Saturday's home match against Texas Wesleyan. The Stars then travel to Arkansas to face John Brown on Wednesday before hosting the Pioneers at 7 p.m. Friday.
 
"It's a great week for us to recover and get people some quality rest, which hopefully will get us even more ready," Giacomazzi said. "It should be an interesting match."