BETHANY, Okla. – Wayland Baptist couldn't close out set-point in the second and the Pioneers fell to Southwestern Christian in Sooner Athletic Conference volleyball action here Friday night, 25-22, 27-25, 25-14.
"We played well in the first and second sets and had leads in both of them, but we deviated from the game plan," Wayland coach
Jim Giacomazzi said.
Sixth-place Wayland (11-16, 9-11 SAC) led by as many as three, 13-10, in the first set and was up as late as 19-18. But at that point the fifth-place Eagles (19-7, 12-7) scored three straight to take the lead, and the Pioneers never got it back.
In the second set, WBU was up 15-13 when Southwestern Christian ran off seven straight points. Trailing 24-20, Wayland fought off four set points and then took a 25-24 lead only to see the Eagles come up with three kills in a row to win it.
"That was a little disappointing. We had set point and couldn't pull it out," Giacomazzi said.
The third set was never really close after the home team got out to a 10-4 lead.
"It was a story of unforced errors. That's the bottom line," Giacomazzi said of his team's 16 attack miscues, six service errors, four ball-handling errors and three blocking errors.
"They out-hustled us on defense and got balls up that we put some good swings on."
Amber Daniel finished with a double-double of 13 kills and 11 digs.
Kellie Kozak put down 10 kills and hit .258.
Jordan Breding dug 19 balls and
Jessica Nguyen provided 34 assists.
Senior
Mallorie Ellis, recovering from a back injury, played sparingly, logging two kills.
"She just doesn't have any endurance right now because she was unable to work out for two weeks," Giacomazzi said.
Wayland took the Eagles to five when the teams met Sept. 29 in Plainview. Southwestern Christian won that one, 26-24, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-9.
The Pioneers end the regular-season with an 1 p.m. match Saturday at Oklahoma City (26-3, 17-3), which with a win will earn at least a share of the conference title with Southwestern Assemblies of God (26-3, 17-2), ranked the equivalent of 27th in the NAIA. The Stars, ranked the equivalent of 36th, defeated Oklahoma-Panhandle State on Friday, 25-10, 25-13, 25-12). OCU downed Wayland in their first match-up, 25-16, 25-23, 25-14.
Wayland will be the No. 6 seed in the SAC Tournament, which begins Tuesday with the Pioneers likely traveling to Fort Worth to take on Texas Wesleyan (21-9, 16-3). Four opening-round winners will advance to the semifinals and finals at OCU next weekend.
