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Box Score 2 POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – Wayland Baptist followed up a not-so-pretty loss with a crushing victory as the Pioneer volleyball team opened play at the Chick-Fil-A College of the Ozarks Tournament here Friday.
Taking a break from Sooner Athletic Conference play, Wayland faced Lawrence Tech (Mich.) in its first match and fell, 25-23, 26-24, 25-17. But the Pioneers bounced right back and overwhelmed Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.), 25-11, 25-14, 25-15.
The split puts Wayland at 10-5 for the season. The Pioneers play two more matches Saturday, at 9 a.m. against Johnson & Wales (Colo.) and at 1 p.m. against host College of the Ozarks, ranked the equivalent of 33rd in the NAIA.
Against the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils (10-8), Wayland experienced what coach Jim Giacomazzi called a "comedy of errors.
"It was a poor performance on our part. It was probably our worst passing experience in the last seven or eight years," he said.
As a result, the Pioneers, who made five reception errors, hit a season-low -.036, recording just 22 kills on 112 attacks with 26 errors. Amber Daniel had nine kills for Wayland, and Jordan Breding turned in solid digging numbers with 22. The Blue Devils, who later in the day lost to John Brown University, 25-18, 21-25, 25-15, 26-24, hit .165 against the Pioneers.
Wayland fixed its mistakes for the second match against the Hannibal-LaGrange Trojans (3-12).
"We corrected things for the second match," Giacomazzi said. "We knew we were going to win, so we got a lot of people playing time. (Freshmen) Kara (Foreman) and Fallyn (Berry) started the second and third games and both did well. I was pleased with their work."
Foreman and Berry registered three kills apiece and hit .200 and .286, respectively. Senior Megan Sharratt led the way with 15 kills and hit .520, followed by 10 smashes for Daniel (.226), who logged a team-high 16 digs and five aces. Breding and Mallorie Ellis had 14 digs apiece, and Ellis was credited with two solo blocks. Elisabeth Piroli tallied 39 assists. WBU finished with 10 aces and made no reception errors.
"We had a lot more digging in that match," Giacomazzi said. "Megan played well."
The Trojans hit -.028 and committed 10 serve-receive errors.
Saturday's first outing will be a rematch against Johnson & Wales, which Wayland defeated in its third match of the season in Denver, 25-10, 25-18, 27-25. The Wildcats are 1-15.
"Tomorrow we get to see how much we've improved. We played them our first tournament of the year, so we'll take a look and see how we've improved," Giacomazzi said. "We want to keep taking steps forward on our technique, our timing, and our reading.
"We have to do a better job blocking. That will make our defense a heck of a lot better."
