Wayland Baptist closed out its home volleyball schedule with another convincing win here Saturday morning as the Pioneers took down Langston University (Okla.) in Sooner Athletic Conference action, 25-10, 25-16, 25-14.
"Today was a good day," WBU coach
Jim Giacomazzi said. "Our goal was to try to get people healthy and work on timing and be more efficient with our movement. For the most part accomplished that."
Against a Langston team (6-24, 2-16 SAC) that showed up from Muskogee, Okla., with just seven players, the Pioneers (11-14, 10-8) faced little resistance from start to finish, similar to the team's sweep of last-place Central Christian on Friday night.
Wayland didn't put up the stats it did against Central Christian, hitting .138 overall. Sadie Hall led the Pioneers at .300 with four kills.
Amber Daniel produced a double-double with 10 smashes and 16 digs, both team-highs, while
Tatijana Markic put down seven kills.
Jordan Breding dug 15 balls,
Jessica Nguyen 26 assists and three block-assists,
Kellie Kozak two solo blocks and two block-assists, and
Alex Wood one solo and two block-assists.
With no chance of finishing in the top four in the conference and hosting a league tournament first-round match, Saturday marked Wayland's final home match of the season. The Pioneers are on the road for their final three regular-season contests against eighth-place Oklahoma-Panhandle State (7-17, 5-11) on Tuesday then fifth-place Southwestern Christian (18-7, 11-7) and second-place Oklahoma City University (24-3, 15-2) next Friday and Saturday.
"We have three matches left, and two of them are above us (in the standings)," Giacomazzi said. WBU lost in three to OCU and in five to Southwestern in the first half of league play, while the Pioneers swept OPSU (25-13, 28-26, 25-9).
"OPSU is a hard place to go in and play," the coach said of his team's pending trip to Goodwell. "They always have a passionate crowd. They like to find one person on the opposing team and pick on them and try to wear them down mentally.
"Next week will be good training for us since the rest of the year we're on the road. We need to overcome all of the distractions and focus from beginning to end. We'd like to do well against all of them to use that as a springboard for the opening round of the conference tournament.
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