Determined Tabor ends Wayland season

Wayland Baptist coach Jim Giacomazzi said the Tabor College (Kan.) Bluejays would bring a lot of "fire" and "enthusiasm" to their opening round match in the NAIA Volleyball National Championships. They also brought a ton of determination.

Tabor dropped the first set before rallying to win the next three, ending Wayland's season on Saturday night in Hutcherson Center, 25-27, 27-25, 25-23, 25-20.

"I have to give Tabor the credit for having the stick-to-itiveness to stay focused the whole set, no matter what the score was," Giacomazzi said. "It was a well-fought contest."

The win advances Tabor (26-9), making its first-ever appearance in the NAIA National Championships, to the final site in Sioux City, Iowa, as one of 32 teams beginning competition Nov. 29.

Wayland's season ends 24-16 after its third straight home loss in the opening round.

"We had so many players who did the very best they could and I could tell they left it on the floor," Giacomazzi said. "The match scores were close. It was a tight match the whole night. Either team could have won with a break one way or the other."

After blowing an 18-12 lead and dropping the first set, 27-25, Tabor turned the tables on Wayland in the next two sets.

The Pioneers led the second set, 24-21, but couldn't put the Bluejays away. A series of four consecutive attack errors allowed Tabor to take a 25-24 lead. Wayland fought off one match point with a kill by Alex Wood, but Tabor won it on a kill by Tena Loewen followed by another error by the Pioneers.

"(Tabor) came in and made fewer mistakes than we did," Giacomazzi said. "We did a good job digging, we did a good job blocking, and we had about the same number of kills as Tabor, but it was our hitting errors where we shot ourselves in the foot."

Wayland also held a substantial lead in the third set, up 18-13, when a combination of Tabor kills and Pioneer attack errors allowed the Bluejays to tie it at 19. Wayland went up by two only to have Tabor win the next four points, then the Pioneers won two to knot it at 23-all.

From there, an attack error by Wayland then a kill by Amy Horner finished it off for Tabor, 25-23.

A bit unsettled from Tabor's comebacks, the Pioneers fell behind early in the fourth set, and although they were able to take a 9-8 lead, it didn't last. Tabor took 10 of the next 13 points, and the writing was on the wall as the Bluejays held a commanding 18-12 edge.

Wayland briefly rallied to get within three, but the teams exchanged points the rest of the way and Tabor won the decisive fourth set, 25-20.

Both teams had about the same kills (55 for Tabor, 54 for Wayland), but the Pioneers committed 37 hitting errors and hit .097 compared to Tabor's .173 with 25 errors.

Juniors Megan Sharratt and Wood finished with 17 and 15 kills and hit .233 and .238, respectively. Sophomore Mallorie Ellis added a dozen kills.

"For us to be successful we had to work out of the middle, and if we could've had a couple more quality passes and quality sets to the middle the outcome could have been different," Giacomazzi said.

"Unfortunately, the hitters had some errors because of poor choices by the setters. I don't want to blame the hitters. We needed to execute a little bit better in a part of our game.

"But we fought hard all the way to the end."

Tabor got 21 kills from Loewen (.210) and 17 from Horner (.188).

Wayland was credited with 84 digs, including 20 from Rossanna Ramos, 18 from Riyana Rakrouki and 15 from Ellis. Ali Jost paced Tabor with 25 digs while Loewen and Horner recorded 15 apiece.

"I can't say enough about Rossanna," Giacomazzi said. "She did a fantastic job. I was really pleased with her and Megan. Megan only five kills against Tabor the first time and tonight she led us with 17. She had a .667 hitting percentage in that first set."

Wayland put down eight blocks – Sharratt had four block-assists – compared to seven for Tabor – Keeley Kroeker, Miranda Leibold and Kendra Kroeker had three BAs each.

Rakrouki tallied 44 assists for the Pioneers while Megan Voth got 29 and Keeley Kroeker 22 for the Bluejays. Voth also posted two aces.

It was Tabor's second win of the season over Wayland, having won in three at a tournament in Kansas on Sept. 4, 28-26, 25-18, 25-19.

"To see where we started at the beginning of the year, especially against Tabor. We've improved so much through the year to make it to the national championship," Giacomazzi said. "I have to give a lot of credit to the players who worked so hard, as well as to (assistant coach) Tatiana Gonzalez for helping out so much and to a lot of the alumni for helping us our in practice, from Claire Jacobsma and Natasha (Giacomazzi) to the support Shahala (Hawkins) showed. All of those things helped us become a better team."

The coach also pointed out that the team overcome a slew of injuries.

"The injuries plagued us a lot through the year yet we were still able to show determination and courage and fortitude to fight through that pain and have some success. Jessica (Stohlmann), Mallorie and Alex played with so much courage this year."

Of course the Pioneers would love to be looking forward to a trip to Iowa, but Giacomazzi said they still have lots about which to be proud.

"There are 219 teams that play volleyball in the NAIA, and we were in the top 44. We would have liked to have been in the top 32, and we were maybe three points from accomplishing that, but it is what it is."