Volleyball drops SAC opener to MACU

It was not the kind of start to the Sooner Athletic Conference season the Wayland Baptist volleyball team was hoping for.
 
The Pioneers hosted a determined Mid-America Christian team Friday evening in Hutcherson Center and fell victim to their own mistakes as Wayland fell in three, 25-21, 25-19, 25-17.
 
"The team that makes the least amount of mistakes wins. When you look at the stats what you'll see is they had six hitting errors and we had 20 hitting errors," frustrated WBU coach Jim Giacomazzi said.
 
The match was the second of the evening for the Evangels (3-3, 1-0 SAC), who took on Our Lady of the Lake in a non-conference match right before facing Wayland and fell to the Saints in four, 24-26, 25-15, 25-17, 25-18.
 
Wayland takes on OLLU (5-1), also in a non-conference tilt, immediately after its SAC match against Science & Arts of Oklahoma (0-2, 0-1) starting at 11 a.m. Saturday. In only their second match all season, the Drovers fell to Oklahoma-Panhandle State (4-4, 1-0) Friday night in Goodwell, 25-13, 25-11, 26-14.
 
WBU's loss to MACU – the Pioneers' first ever against the Evangels after 25 victories – came down to Wayland shooting itself in the foot too many times.
 
"In the first set they needed only two kills to get their first 10 points. We had 12 errors in the first set to their 13 kills. (Almost) all of their points are by our errors," Giacomazzi said. "In the third set they had 19 kills and we had six hitting errors.
 
"We finally had a sense of urgency when it was like 22-17 in the third set. We needed that in the first set. We're at the point now where we have to come out with more intensity at the beginning of the match."
 
MACU hit .325 as a team with 45 kills, compared to Wayland's .144 with 38 kills. The Evangels were led by Hannah Focker, who logged 16 smashes and didn't commit an error in 42 attempts, and Alexa Bass, who had 10 kills and two errors. Both hit .381.
 
"Focker made very few mistakes," Giacomazzi said.
 
Tatijana Markic and Amber Daniel recorded 13 and 11 kills, respectively, and both had five errors for Wayland, which was coming off an encouraging trip to Denver where the Pioneers won three of four tournament matches. Jordan Breding returned from an ankle injury and led the team with 15 digs, followed by Daniel with 14 and Lucie Mahelova with 10. Kellie Kozak ended with four block-assists while Charm Henderson had three.
 
"We have to learn from our mistakes in order to move forward," Giacomazzi said. "We have to make a sincere effort to change in order to be successful."