DENVER – After going almost 22 months without winning a five-set match, the Wayland Baptist volleyball did it twice in one day.
Competing on the first day of the Mile High Challenge, the Pioneers pulled out a pair of five-set victories, first over Presentation College, S.D., 25-17, 14-25, 25-21, 17-25, 15-10, then later over Friends University, Kan., 23-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-21, 15-12.
"We're still not playing the way we need to, but it still feels good to win, especially twice in five like we did," Wayland coach Jim Giacomazzi said.
The Pioneers played four five-set matches last season, and lost all of them. WBU's last five-set win was Nov. 2, 2017, in the regular-season finale against Oklahoma-Panhandle State.
On Friday morning against Presentation College, Wayland came up on the short end in many statistical areas but still managed to defeat the Saints.
"I'm trying to figure out how we won," Giacomazzi said. "We had more errors than they did, and they had more points than we did. We just had the right points in the right set.
"I guess we wanted it a little more, and passed a little bit better. In the fifth set we only had five hitting errors to their seven."
As far as wanting it more, Giacomazzi said junior middle Kellie Kozak gave a prime example when she hustled to save a ball near the scorer's table.
"I was amazed at the effort Kellie made at a ball. She had a terrible angle to get the ball in between the antennas. She ran 15 feet to her left, 15 feet back and got their in the nick of time to block it back and score a point. If not for that hustle, we don't win the point. It was a moment of brilliance for Kellie."
Kozak ended with 12 kills and hit a team-best .222. "She did a good job," Giacomazzi said.
Tatijana Markic also had a dozen kills, while Amber Daniel led the way with 17 to go with a career-high 24 digs. "She also had good quality serves without a service error."
Besides Daniel, WBU had three others with double-digit digs as Ariel Marquez and Brenna Daniel logged 13 each and Lucie Mahelova 11. Renzelle Horner finished with 24 assists while Mahelova had 19.
Wayland hit .108 as a team, just better than Presentation's .101.
"We did well enough to win," Giacomazzi said.
Then, in a "nip-and-tuck" match against Friends, Wayland got a spectacular showing from Markic, who posted a career-high 28 kills to almost double her previous best from last season of 15. She hit .203 and also had 19 digs for her first career double-double.
Markic came up with two key kills late in the fifth set, which Wayland trailed 10-6 when Giacomazzi called a timeout. The Pioneers came back out and scored the next four points – including the two kills by Markic and one by Amber Daniel – to tie it up. Then after losing the next two points, Wayland scored the final five thanks to two more kills by Markic and a pair of aces by Sadie Hall.
Amber Daniel also finished with a double-double with 17 kills and 28 digs, four more than her previous career-high earlier in the day.
With Horner sidelined with a back injury, Mahelova provided 54 assists to go with 17 digs. Kozak finished with a dozen spikes, three solo and one block assist, and two aces.
But Giacomazzi heaped most of his praise upon Hall, who hammered out five aces (half of WBU's total of 10) to go with three kills and a pair of solo blocks. "Sadie did a great job serving," the coach said of the junior. "She contributed big time."
Wayland benefited from a delay of game red card issued against Friends in the fourth set. Trailing 17-15, the Pioneers ran off six straight points (including two aces by Hall), just before Friends was hit with the penalty.
WBU was able to finish it off from there, ended it on kills by Kozak and Daniel.
"It was an exciting match," Giacomazzi said.
After dropping their first four matches of the season, the Pioneers (3-4) now have won three in a row. They'll look to keep it rolling at 3 p.m. CDT Saturday against Dickinson St., S.D., and in the tournament finale against host Johnson & Wales at 7 p.m. CDT.
"We have to play with fewer errors," Giacomazzi said.
Dickinson St. won its season-opener over Friends on Friday, 3-1, before taking on Johnson & Wales Friday evening. Johnson & Wales, an NCAA Division III program, fell to Presentation in four in its season debut.
