CHICKASHA, Okla. – Hoping to take advantage of playing Mid-America Christian on a neutral court, the Wayland Baptist volleyball team couldn't pull it off and fell to the Evangels in Sooner Athletic Conference play here Saturday afternoon, 26-24, 27-29, 25-23, 25-21.
The match was played at University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, where the Pioneers defeated the Drovers in three Friday night to start the second half of conference play.
Saturday's loss snapped a five-match win streak for Wayland (6-11, 6-6 SAC) as MACU (14-9, 8-4) completed the regular-season sweep of the Pioneers, having won in Plainview earlier this season in five.
"We played hard but had too many unforced errors," Pioneers coach
Jim Giacomazzi said. "There were some moments where we did well, but an error ended a lot of our good work. "Neither team was able to get very much momentum."
After the teams split the first two sets, set three was tied at 23-all after a kill by Wayland's
Fade Ogunbade. But a kill by MACU's Miriam Nardi then an ace by Casady McKinney ended it.
Wayland came back in the fourth and jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The Pioneers were up 10-8 when the Evangels scored four straight to take the lead, only to see WBU tie it at 12. That's when MACU took control, getting three straight kills to kick off a 9-1 run.
Wayland took both of its timeouts on either side of one point within that stretch in an attempt to turn the tide, but it had little effect.
The Pioneers didn't go quietly, however, putting together a 6-1 run to pull to within 22-19. Wayland cut it to two, 23-21, but once again a MACU kill followed by an ace ended the match
"I'm disappointed with our serve receive in the fourth set, but that's because when we needed a quality pass it was not there. But overall our serve receive was bad today. When we had good passes and good digs we had a lot of success hitting," Giacomazzi said. Wayland ended with 13 reception errors, nine service errors and 13 hitting errors.
Ogunbade turned in one of her best matches of the season, ending with a season-high 14 kills while hitting .542.
Alexa Hinojos added 10 kills and hit .259. MACU, which had 65 kills vs. WBU's 41, had four players with double-digit kills, led by Lena Stockhammer's 19.
Wayland dominated at the net, recording two solo and 20 block-assists; MACU had one solo and two block-assists. Ogunbade also set the pace there with one solo and six assists.
Chante Moore tacked on five assists, Hinojosa four and
Maria Eduarda Motta one solo and three assists.
Dayana Critchi logged 16 digs and
Elizabeth Wirth 15.
Samantha Ingram provided all but two of Wayland's 39 assists.
The Pioneers return home next weekend for their toughest doubleheader pairing, welcoming ninth-ranked, unbeaten Southwestern Assemblies of God University (19-0, 11-0) at 7 p.m. Friday and No. 25 Texas Wesleyan (16-3, 10-1) at 1 p.m. Saturday. WBU was swept by both SAGU and TXWES on the road earlier this season.
