Plainview, Texas –
Selma Sutaj and
Fade Ogunbade each had double-digit kills as they paced Wayland Baptist to a 3-0 straight-set victory over Central Christian Friday evening at the Hutcherson Center in Plainview, Texas.
The first set was a back-and-forth affair as the Pioneers broke away from the Tigers with a 9-3 run to end the first set as Wayland won 25-21. Sutaj had three of her game-high 11 kills during the run to help the Pioneer cause.
It was all Wayland in the second set as the Pioneers raced out to an early 5-1 lead en route to a 25-11 score. The third set was again close in the early stages, but the Pioneers used a 5-0 run to take a 20-13 advantage and then they scored the final four points of the match to win the set 25-17 and claim the straight-set win.
The Pioneers led in every statistical category as they finished with a .187 hitting percentage, which included a .357 percentage in the second set. They also had 38 total kills with five aces. Wayland also played outstanding defense as they had nine blocks with 67 digs.
"Regarding our offense this evening, I need to praise the 10 and 11 kills Fade and Selma had last night," said head coach James Giacomazzi. "However high praise goes to
Ava Pinter. She came off the bench and played in the second and third sets and she made the most of her nine swings. Six kills and only one errant swing, giving her a .556 hitting percentage. Defensively, we had 67 digs in the three games. A game average of 22.33 which is far above our 17.2 average for the season. Leading the digging charge were
Selma Sutaj and
Brenna Daniel with 16 and 14 respectively. Elisabeth Wirth ended the night with a double-double 10 digs and 16 assists. We have been working hard the last several weeks and we are seeing positive results from that hard work. Beating OCU on the road last Saturday and picking up this home victory is a nice beginning of a winning streak."
Stat Leaders:
Kills – Sutaj – 11, Ogunbade – 10
Aces – Alyssa Vasquez – 3
Blocks – Ogunbade – 6.0
Assists – Bozzato – 17
Digs – Sutaj – 16
Records:
Wayland Baptist – 8-10, 7-6 SAC
Central Christian – 6-16, 3-10 SAC
Up Next – The Pioneers continue their home stand with a match against Langston on Saturday afternoon with the start time set for 1 p.m.
