Pioneers sweep USAO then play one of best matches against Our Lady of the Lake

The Wayland Baptist volleyball team played two matches Saturday in Hutcherson Center. They convincingly won the first over Science & Arts of Oklahoma, 3-0. In the second – despite a 3-1 loss to Our Lady of the Lake – the Pioneers played what coach Jim Giacomazzi called one of their best matches of the season.
 
"We played so much closer to our potential," Giacomazzi said. "The intangibles – like ball-handling, decision making under stress – we need to do better with that, but we played the game a lot better.
 
"We're definitely a work in progress, but today we moved in the right direction."
 
After a disappointing 3-0 loss to Mid-America Christian in their Sooner Athletic Conference opener Friday night, the Pioneers – playing without lone senior Jordan Breding who continues dealing with a high ankle sprain – posted a number of season-best numbers in their late morning match against USAO. Among them was a season-high .455 hitting percentage – almost double their previous best – as Wayland rolled past the Drovers, 25-7, 25-11, 25-6.
 
Wayland ended with 39 kills and just four errors. Individually, Tatijana Markic recorded 15 kills and hit .448 while Amber Daniel had 10 smashes and hit .588. Kellie Kozak got eight in 10 swings with one error for her .700.
 
Daniel led in digs with a dozen, while Kozak had three aces (WBU totaled 12) and three block-assists. Lucie Mahelova, in addition to 24 assists, served three aces while Charm Henderson had three block-assists.
 
USAO (0-3), in just its third outing of the season, hit -.086.
 
Against OLLU, a member of the Red River Conference that defeated Mid-America Christian on Friday in four, the Pioneers kept up their solid play against a much stronger opponent.
 
The Pioneers led briefly in the first set but had a stronger lead in set No. 2. Wayland was leading 17-15 before the Saints went on a 10-1 game-ending streak thanks to a combination of kills and WBU errors.
 
WBU jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third set and never looked back, although the Saints did score four in a row to close to 22-21. The Pioneers then won three of the next four, closing it out with kills by Markic and Sadie Hall.
 
"I was curious to see how they'd respond after we took one from them," Giacomazzi said.
 
The fourth set saw Wayland battle from behind and got on a 7-2 run to take a 21-20 lead. But the Saints regrouped and closed out the match with four kills and an ace.
 
Wayland hit .179, committing 17 errors with 41 kills, compared to OLLU's .205 with 60 kills and 30 errors.
 
"This is one of the few matches we lost that the other team had more hitting errors than we did, so our errors, for as many swings as we took, were better," Giacomazzi said. "They also had 18 more digs than we did.
 
"On the positive side, this was one of the best locking matches we've had against a team that can hit the ball well. That's reassuring, because that means we're getting better."
 
Wayland ended with five solo and 16 block-assists for a total of 13. Henderson wound up with two solos and five assists, Kozak one solo and five assists, and Markic two each.
 
"We haven't had that many solo blocks in quite a few years," Giacomazzi said. The last time WBU had more than five solo blocks was near the end of the 2017 season when it had six against OPSU. That's also the last time the Pioneers had 13 total blocks.
 
Markic ended with 18 kills and hit .245, while Daniel had nine and Kozak seven. Playing libero, Tevia Bell recorded 17 digs, while Markic and Daniel got nine each. Mahelova produced 35 assists.
 
"We still have to fix our reception errors (seven), but I think we turned a corner. Time will tell."
 
The Pioneers hit the road for their next five matches in a two-week mix of SAC and non-conference outings. They face Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan., on Thursday, Langston in Oklahoma on Friday, then Central Christian and Sterling College in Kansas on Saturday. After a trip to Oklahoma-Panhandle State on Sept. 17, the Pioneers finally return home to host John Brown on Sept. 21.