Plainview – The Pioneer Volleyball team made quick work of Southwestern Christian on Friday night, sweeping the Eagles in three sets to extend their winning streak to a season-high four games and move to 10-4 in Sooner Athletic Conference play.
Wayland Baptist (11-7, 10-4 SAC) jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead over the Eagles in the opening set after two kills by sophomore
Klaudia Brzeczkowska and a kill by
Emme Wilson, but the Eagles stormed back to even the score up at 4-4 after three straight kills. Junior
Fade Ogunbade would jolt the Pioneers in front 10-7 after scoring her first two kills of the match.
Southwestern Christian would gain some momentum in the opening set and jump out to an 18-14, but the Pioneers battled back with three straight kills with the final one coming from Ogunbade to make it 18-17, Eagles. The Eagles re-took a four-point lead and forced the Pioneers to call a timeout with the score at 21-17, SCU. Wayland Baptist battled back to tie the Eagles at 22 after Ogunbade scored back-to-back kills to tie the match. With the set tied at 23, Ogunbade and freshman
Averi Penner scored back-to-back kills to clinch the first set victory for Wayland Baptist, 25-23.
The Pioneers opened the second set with an 8-3 lead after Brzeczkowska scored three more kills to snatch the early momentum in the set. That lead increased to 17-6 after two kills and an ace from Brzeczkowska, two kills by senior
Alyssa Vasquez, and a kill from junior
Carlee Heidebrecht. The Pioneers dominated the set in its entirety, winning 25-9 after Ogunbade scored back-to-back service aces to secure the set victory, and taking a 2-0 lead over the Eagles in the match.
Wayland Baptist carried the momentum from the dominating second set into the third set as they jumped out to another 8-3 lead after Penner scored three more kills. The Eagles gradually chipped away at the Pioneer lead and eventually took a 15-14 lead, but the Pioneers would erase their deficit immediately after an Eagle attacking error and an Ogunbade kill would give them a 16-15 lead. The Pioneers pulled away from the Eagles over the final few points and capped off the 25-20 third set win, completing the 3-0 match sweep of Southwestern Christian.
"Klaudia did a super job tonight. this was one of Fade's better games this season. Their blocking continued to get better down the end of the game. We had a great night with Emme tonight, getting 17 assists in the first set tonight was amazing," said Head Coach
Jim Giacomazzi highlighting a few standout performances from his team.
Ogunbade finished with a team-high 13 kills, a whopping .706 hitting percentage, two service aces, and three total blocks. Brzeczkowska added nine kills, three service aces, a block, and a .444 hitting percentage. Penner finished with nine kills, a .286 hitting percentage, and a block assist. Wilson totaled 39 assists, two kills, and a .250 hitting percentage.
The Pioneers will look to extend their winning streak to five games as they host Oklahoma City University on Saturday, October 19
th in a massive Sooner Athletic Conference match. The match is set to begin at 1:00 PM at the Hutcherson Center.
Coach Giacomazzi talked about the upcoming match against Oklahoma City saying, "We have a big match tomorrow, an important match. The way we're approaching each game is we aren't making one game more important than any other. Our goal is to improve our skills, our reading, our serve receiving, and the quality of our serves, and if we win, that's a byproduct of the hard work we put in last week."
