McPHERSON, Kan. – An eventful trip came to a close with a Saturday split for the Wayland Baptist volleyball team. The Pioneers won the most important match of the day, a lopsided Sooner Athletic Conference victory over Central Christian, Kan., 25-7, 25-11, 25-11, before WBU dropped a four-set marathon to non-conference opponent Sterling College, Kan., 28-26, 25-12, 26-28, 29-27.
"It's been a long trip," WBU coach
Jim Giacomazzi said.
The trip started with a suspended match Thursday against Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan., when moisture on the court prompted officials to blow the whistle on the match early in the fifth set. The Pioneers then won a SAC match Friday over Langston, 25-22, 25-14, 25-27, 25-15.
Although frustrated with some circumstances during the final match against Sterling, Giacomazzi was pleased to get so much volleyball in. "We're tired, but it was good for us to play all of those," he said. "We played well Thursday. That team (Southwestern) is one of the top teams in their conference. Then we took care of business Friday and today against Central Christian. We were hitting on all cylinders. The girls did a good job communicating."
After about a 45-minute break, Wayland retook the floor to face Sterling on Central Christian's floor.
"We came out and did well but lost a long first set. We fell flat in the second set but then came back and won the third," Giacomazzi said. "(Sterling) did what they had to do to keep the ball in play longer than we did."
Unofficial stats against Central Christian showed
Kellie Kozak and
Amber Daniel with 11 kills each on 16 and 24 attempts, respectively.
Renzelle Horner had another nice match with 28 assists and five aces.
Tatijana Markic also served five aces, while Daniel led with 10 digs.
Against Sterling, Markic put down 19 kills and Daniel 14, but Wayland hit just .075 compared to .145 for Sterling. Daniel added a team-high 22 digs and four solo blocks, while
Tevia Bell had 21 digs,
Ariel Marquez and Horner 14 each, and Markic 13. Horner issued 33 assists, and five players combined for seven aces.
Four Sterling players had double-digit kills.
"We had a lot of digs but gave up a lot points because we didn't recognize tips," Giacomazzi said. "We were half-a-step too slow. We have to be in position ready to play defense before they jump. When we do that we'll be a much better defensive team.
"Right now we're very predictable with what we're doing," he added. "As we get better with our ballhandling we'll be able to run our middles more. Our blocking has been getting better, which is a big plus. We're going to have to have that, especially against teams like John Brown who we have coming up. They're a very good team. We're going to try to play really aggressive against them."
WBU hosts second-place John Brown (9-3, 3-1) in its next home match Friday, but the Pioneers have one more road match before that against Oklahoma-Panhandle State (6-5, 3-1) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Goodwell.
The Pioneers are tied with three other teams for second place in the SAC standings, all with 3-1 records behind 24
th-ranked Oklahoma City (10-1, 4-0). OPSU defeated Central Christian in three and Langston in five this weekend.
