It's off to Arkansas for the Wayland Baptist volleyball team after the Pioneers ended the regular-season in triumphant fashion, defeating Southwestern Christian on Saturday afternoon in Hutcherson Center, 25-20, 25-10, 25-23.
"We played a team that wasn't the same level as OCU (the No. 18 Stars defeated Wayland on Friday, 25-23, 25-23, 25-17) and played really well," Wayland coach
Jim Giacomazzi said. "We fixed, for the most part, a lot of our reception errors, and had more kills and a better hitting percentage than the previous night."
The win leaves the Pioneers (14-18, 9-11 Sooner Athletic Conference) and Eagles (14-14, 9-11 SAC) tied for sixth place in the league standings, but Wayland – because it took SCU to four games in a loss when the teams played in Bethany, Okla. – gets the No. 6 seed while SCU is No. 7 for the upcoming conference tournament.
For Wayland, that means a trip to Siloam Springs, Ark., to take on third-seeded John Brown (24-7, 15-4), which faced Langston (7-23, 4-15) to end the regular-season Saturday. JBU likely won its sixth straight against the Lions, a streak started when the Golden Eagles defeated Wayland on Oct. 25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-10. JBU also downed the Pioneers when they met in Plainview on Sept. 21, 25-15, 25-18, 26-24.
"John Brown is a good, solid team that's well-coached," Giacomazzi said. "We played well against them, and because we played them recent enough we know the adjustments we need to make. It will be great for us to go against a team we played recently."
The first round of the SAC Tournament is Tuesday, Nov. 12, tentatively at 7 p.m. The winner of four first-round matches advance to Oklahoma City University, which will host the semifinals and finals on Nov. 15 and 16.
Against Southwestern Christian, which is headed to Fort Worth to face second-seeded Texas Wesleyan in the first round (the winner of that match will face the WBU-JBU winner in the semis), Wayland mostly controlled the final two sets after having to rally in the first.
The Eagles led 13-9 before Wayland surged and went up 15-14 and never trailed again. The Pioneers rattled off six unanswered points – two on aces by
Renzelle Horner – to take a 22-16 lead. Then, unlike Friday night against OCU, Wayland was able to finish it off, getting a kill by
Kellie Kozak to end it.
WBU jumped out to a 5-0 lead in set two and never looked back. It was 19-4 until SCU made a bit of a push toward the end before the Pioneers took it 25-10, finishing it with back-to-back kills by Kozak.
The third was close throughout, with the Eagles up 21-19. From there, the Pioneers outscored SCU 6-2, getting a kill by
Lucie Mahelova and two more by Kozak to close it out, 25-23.
Kozak wound up with 16 kills and hit .424 while also getting four of Wayland's 12 block-assists.
Tatijana Markic added 10 kills and posted her second-best hitting percentage of the season, .385.
"Kellie and Tatijana both hit well, and our blocking was a lot better," Giacomazzi said.
Horner, playing in front of her grandparents who were visiting from Canada, wound up with 37 assists and the two aces.
Jordan Breding and
Tevia Bell posted 17 and 13 digs, respectively.
"That was a big improvement for Tevia over last night," Giacomazzi said. "It's always nice when you have (more than one person) getting double-digit digs."
SCU was led by Cashlyn Munroe, who had a match-high 18 kills and hit .225. The Eagles hit .090 as a team.
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