Volleyballers take quarterfinal over SAGU

Box Score Not much changed in the four days since the Wayland Baptist volleyball team defeated Southwestern Assemblies of God University in the next-to-last match of the regular season. The Pioneers won that match last Friday in Hutcherson Center in four sets, and they did the same thing Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament.
 
Buoyed by the return of injured hitters Katie Inman and Alex Wood, second-seeded Wayland prevailed, 25-18, 24-26, 26-24, 25-12, running away from the eighth-seeded Lady Lions in the fourth set to set up a huge semifinal match against third-seeded Texas Wesleyan at 7 p.m. Friday in the Hutch.
 
"It took a little bit of time for us to get into the swing of things," WBU coach Jim Giacomazzi said. "Our hitting was spot on in the first set, then we backed off a little bit mentally in the second set, and you can't do that in post-season. Every team is looking for an opening, and we gave them 10 points on hitting errors and had a negative hitting percentage (-.020) in the second set. They scored their first 10 points off serve-receive, blocking and hitting errors."
 
After squeaking out the extended third set, the Pioneers saw it come together in the fourth set, which they won going away.
 
"We made some adjustments in the fourth set and were able to stop their middles, and they weren't much of a factor in the fourth set," Giacomazzi said. "We were able to take advantage of their hitting errors and we scored point after point after point.
 
"We have to get into that mentality against Texas Wesleyan on Friday."
 
Megan Sharratt led Wayland with 16 kills and hit .333, while Wood ended with 14 kills (.310) and Mallorie Ellis a dozen smashes.
 
Alex and Mallorie on the outside are back to the way we were swinging six or seven matches ago," Giacomazzi said. "Mallorie had 12 kills tonight, which is the most she's had in several weeks. If we get Katie to eliminate some of her hitting errors, and I expect good things from her, we'll be solid."
 
Wayland hit .188 as a team compared to SAGU's .121. Both teams had seven blocks, with Wayland's coming by way of three block-assists from Jessica Stohlmann and Sharatt's two solo and two assists.
 
"Our block made good adjustments today, and if we continue to do that that's going to help us a lot," Giacomazzi said.
 
Sharratt also had two aces, sharing the lead in that category with Rossanna Ramos, who finished with 29 digs. Inman tacked on 14 digs while Ellis and Jordan Breding had 11 each.
 
"We had a good serve-receive night (one error), but I was disappointed that some of the rallies went too long when we had a quality pass," Giacomazzi said.
 
"SAGU did a good job coming in; they had a good game plan. Their defense was solid, their blocking was good, and they dug just as well as we did, part of which was because neither team put the ball down."
 
Wayland now turns its attention to Texas Wesleyan (28-4), which defeated Southwestern Christian in its quarterfinal match, 25-12, 18-25, 25-15, 25-14. The Lady Rams will come to town confident having knocked off  a short-handed Pioneers team last Saturday in the Hutch, 25-16, 25-21, 25-22.
 
"Texas Wesleyan is just like all of us right now, tired and beat up," Giacomazzi said. "The team that can function the best with the end-of-season fatigue and make the least number of mistakes will win the match."
 
Wayland and Wesleyan square off at 7 p.m., after the first semifinal at 4:30 between top-seeded, 12^th-ranked Oklahoma City (29-3) and John Brown (21-11). OCU, winners of 20 in a row, swept Mid-America Christian on Tuesday, as did JBU against St. Gregory's.
 
Friday's winners advance to the championship match at 11 a.m. Saturday knowing that both have qualified for the NAIA National Championships by virtue of the SAC's two automatic qualifying berths.