Box Score WAXAHACHIE – Wayland Baptist won many of the statistical battles but ultimately dropped its Sooner Athletic Conference match to Southwestern Assemblies of God here Saturday afternoon, 25-21, 25-16, 22-25, 25-23.
"They had nine reception errors, we had seven. We out-blocked them (11-8). You look at it and say, 'How did we lose?'" WBU coach Jim Giacomazzi said. "But we just didn't care of business sometimes. We made too many silly mistakes."
It was the second loss in a row for the Pioneers (8-4, 2-2 SAC), who fell in three to Texas Wesleyan, ranked the equivalent of 32nd in the NAIA, in Fort Worth on Friday. SAGU improved to 12-, 3-0 and sits atop the conference standings with John Brown (11-2, 3-0). The Pioneers are tied for sixth with SAC newcomer Panhandle State (4-7, 2-2), which Wayland hosts at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
"They've improved from last year and they have some athletes," Giacomazzi said of OPSU (4-7, 2-2), which defeated USAO and Mid-America Christian in its SAC openers before being swept on the road by SAGU and Texas Wesleyan.
Against SAGU, the Pioneers stepped up their game from Friday night's loss to Wesleyan, Giacomazzi said.
"We played a lot better today and showed a lot more passion, but we still had a lot of hitting errors (19) we need to fix. We made mistakes at the wrong times."
Megan Sharratt finished with a match-high 18 kills and hit .395, plus had four digs and two blocks. Amber Daniel finished with 14 kills, seven digs and two aces, Jade Jones six kills (.357) and two blocks, and Mallorie Ellis eight blocks, 13 digs and two aces. Jordan Breding dug a match-best 25 balls while Elisabeth Piroli had 16 digs, 41 assists and a pair of aces.
"We had some nice, dramatic blocks, but we must move quicker on defense and establish our position," Giacomazzi said.
Wayland hit .178; SAGU, .232. Four players had nine or more kills for the Lady Lions, led by Jessica Sodich with 16.
"SAGU is a solid team. They did what they needed to do," Giacomazzi said. "Things may be different in the second half of the season as we get experience for our younger players. That's the important thing right now, to get experience and hopefully fix some of those errors in the second half of the season.
"Overall we have to learn how to stay focused longer."
