Plainview, Texas – The Wayland Baptist Women's Volleyball team made very few mistakes in the final two sets to come away with a thrilling 3-1 victory over Texas Wesleyan on Senior night Friday at Hutcherson Center in Plainview, Texas. The win helped the Pioneers solidify a spot in the upcoming Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament set to begin Tuesday evening.
The match was close throughout as the Pioneers claimed the first set 26-24 after being down by as many as eight points in the early stages of the set. After the Rams took a 10-2 lead, Wayland scored seven of the next eight points to cut the lead to 11-9 and then took their first lead of the set on an attack error to make the score 17-16. Texas Wesleyan then grabbed a 24-21 advantage before the Pioneers closed out the set by scoring the final five points to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The second set saw Wayland race out to a pair of eight leads before the Rams went on an 11-2 run to take a 23-22 advantage. Texas Wesleyan then scored three of the final five points to win the set 26-24 and even the match at 1-1.
The third set saw neither team pull away as the largest lead either team would get was three points, but it was a 4-0 run at the end of the set that gave the Pioneers another 26-24 win and a 2-1 lead in the match. Wayland's offense in the third set was outstanding as they had 14 kills on 49 total attacks with only three errors for a .224 hitting percentage.
Wayland continued to play well in the fourth set as the Pioneers broke away from the Rams in the middle stage of the set. After things were tied at 8-8, Wayland went on a 9-1 run to take a 17-9 advantage and cruised to a 25-16 win as they closed out the match. Again, the Pioneers were outstanding on offense as they had 16 kills on 35 total attacks with seven errors for a .257 hitting percentage. They finished the match with a .174 hitting percentage.
Selma Sutaj and
Fade Ogunbade each had 16 kills to pace the Pioneers while
Valentina Bozzato handed out 50 assists in the match. Sutaj added to her double-double with a team-high 24 digs while
Brenna Daniel added 20 digs in the victory.
Wayland Baptist improved to 14-12 overall on the year and now sit at 11-8 in conference play while they handed the Rams only their second league loss of the year.
The Pioneers finish the regular season on Saturday afternoon as they will take on SAGU in a very important conference tilt at 1 p.m. in Huchterson Center that will determine seeding for the SAC post-season tournament that will begin with first-round action on Tuesday evening. The conference office will announce the tournament pairings on Saturday evening after all the conference games have been completed.
