OKLAHOMA CITY – Wayland Baptist won the first but Oklahoma City took the next three as the Stars defeated the Pioneers in the next-to-last Sooner Athletic Conference match of the season here Friday night, 20-25, 25-18, 25-19, 27-25.
"We had opportunities for success providing we had good passing and ball control. Unfortunately, our ball control was not part of the equation," Wayland coach
Jim Giacomazzi said. "We had opportunities for success, but we did not take advantage of those moments in sets two, three and four."
After winning game one when Wayland (8-16, 8-11 SAC) overcame an early 4-1 deficit with nine straight points, the Pioneers again fell behind in both the second, 6-0, and third, 8-1. WBU never caught up in the second but did in the third, going on a 7-1 run to assume a 19-18 lead. But the Pioneers didn't score again as OCU (13-13, 11-8) closed out the set with seven unanswered on a series of kills and WBU hitting errors.
Wayland led much of the fourth and, after five straight points on five OCU errors, were up 24-21. But the Stars got hot and fought off four set points by going on another late run, this one 6-1 to end the match.
Chante Moore turned in one of her top performances of the year with a season-high 16 kills and .317 hitting percentage to go with one solo block and five block-assists. No other Pioneer ended with more than seven kills (OCU had three players with double-digit smashes), and Wayland hit .094.
"Chante did well tonight," Giacomazzi said.
Senior
Brenna Daniel finished with 24 digs while
Samantha Ingram provided 13 digs and 35 assists.
Maria Eduarda Motta added 11 digs and
Carlee Heidebrecht nine.
Fade Ogunbade had seven kills and five blocks (four assists).
Wayland, which is locked into the No. 7 seed for the SAC Tournament, wraps up the regular-season by taking on Southwestern Christian in Bethany, Okla., beginning at noon Saturday. The Lady Eagles (10-17, 4-14) lost to Oklahoma-Panhandle State on Friday in five, and it appears will finish ninth in the SAC and be left out of the tournament. The Pioneers defeated SCU in five, 24-26, 22-25, 25-10, 25-17, 15-12, when the teams met Sept. 30 in Plainview.
