Pioneers get back to their winning ways

With his team coming off back-to-back losses, Wayland Baptist volleyball coach Jim Giacomazzi wasn't about to complain too loudly after Tuesday night's Sooner Athletic Conference sweep of Oklahoma Panhandle State.

Still, he wasn't overly thrilled.

"There was nothing I could get too excited about tonight, but when it's all said and done it's a win," Giacomazzi said after Wayland defeated the Aggies, 25-23, 25-19, 25-22 in Hutcherson Center.

After suffering losses to Texas Wesleyan and Southwestern Assemblies of God last weekend in the Metroplex, the Pioneers got back to their winning ways by dispatching SAC newcomer OPSU (4-8, 2-3). Before Tuesday, Wayland and Panhandle State hadn't met on the volleyball court since 2011, and now the Pioneers own a commanding 10-1 series lead.

But it wasn't always easy.

OPSU stayed with Wayland in the first set, which was tied 22-22. That's when Pioneer senior Megan Sharratt came through with two clutch kills to go along with an OPSU attack error that gave the opener to the Pioneers.

"We started out poorly in the first set with poor swings. We had more errors in first set (nine) than we had in our next two sets combined (four). Some heated words got some girls motivated," Giacomazzi said. "The good thing is we came back…we rallied. We pulled it out and made a better effort in sets two and three."

Wayland appeared to have the match won in set three, but officials ruled a touch on the Pioneers after what appeared to be an attack error against OPSU. The Aggies won that point and two more before Wayland put it away on a kill by freshman Kellie Kozak.

While Giacomazzi wasn't thrilled with his team's play, the coach did sing the praises Sharratt, who finished with a match-high 12 kills and hit .400 while also getting four aces, three block-assists and three digs.

"Megan did a great job, as usual. That's the silver lining in the match," Giacomazzi said. "I have to commend her. The balls she got kills on were off of poor passes and poor digs, but she worked really hard to get in position to have a good swing. She sets such a good example to how to be available to hit a quality ball. I wish some of our underclassmen would start picking up on what she does."

Mallorie Ellis finished with nine kills and Amber Daniel eight. Elisabeth Piroli dished out 33 assists and Jordan Breding came up with 17 of Wayland's 44 digs, 13 fewer than OPSU.

"Some girls on the team are not getting digging numbers they did last year. We're ranked eighth or ninth in the conference in team digging. We have to work on that," Giacomazzi said.

Wayland had 10 block assists.

"Our serve-receive looked good. We passed it at 63 percent, which is acceptable. Our blocking is not coming around fast enough to please me. We've been working on our block a lot, but we have very few people consistently penetrating on the block.

"Those are things we need to constantly work on in practice. As our blocking gets better our defense gets better. With a good block our back-row defense gets better."

Wayland takes a break from conference play as the Pioneers hit the road for their final regular-season tournament, the Chick-Fil-A College of the Ozarks Tournament in Point Lookout, Mo. The Pioneers open against Lawrence Tech, Mich., at 1 p.m. Friday then take on Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.) at 5. On Saturday, WBU goes against Johnson & Wales (Colo.) at 9 a.m. then host College of the Ozarks, which is receiving Top 25 votes, at 1.

Wayland's next home match is Sept. 29 when SAC play resumes against Southwestern Christian.