Fort Worth – The Pioneers were on the doorstep of taking down Texas Wesleyan on Friday night on the road in a tough Sooner Athletic Conference match up with tons of conference standings implications at hand, but they couldn't slam the door as the Rams battled back to defeat Wayland Baptist in five sets.
Wayland Baptist (12-8, 11-5 SAC) opened tonight's match by falling behind 14-7 early in the opening set after a strong start by the Rams that featured three aces. Texas Wesleyan extended their opening set lead to 20-11after scoring four more kills to take command early. The Pioneers were able to cut their deficit to 23-16 after a pair of kills by freshman
Emma Scott and senior
Alyssa Vasquez, but the spurt wouldn't be enough as the Rams won set one, 25-16.
The Pioneers opened the second set much stronger as they jumped out to a 10-6 lead after three straight points via kills by senior
Selma Sutaj followed by another kill from Vasquez. Texas Wesleyan slowly chipped away and made it 13-12 in favor of the Pioneers, but a 6-0 scoring run for Wayland Baptist fueled by two more kills from Sutaj and another kill by Vasquez to extend their lead to 19-13. Wayland Baptist secured the second set victory, 25-18, to even the match up at 1-1.
After a back-and-forth battle began the third set with a 7-7 tie, the Pioneers would begin to take control of set three by executing a 5-0 scoring run sparked by a service ace from graduate student
Emily Buchberger, and a kill by junior
Carlee Heidebrecht to give WBU the 12-7 advantage over the Rams. The Pioneers continued to build their third set lead after a service ace from Vasquez put Wayland Baptist up 16-9. Sutaj would wrap up the third set with her fourth kill of the set, giving the Pioneers the 25-15 set victory and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Texas Wesleyan opened the must-win fourth set by taking a 13-9 lead over the Pioneers after nine Pioneer errors put them in a bind. The Rams extended their advantage to 18-13 and seemed as if they were going to cruise to a fourth set win, but the Pioneers would begin to chip away at their deficit. The Pioneers rattled off another scoring burst, this one being a 7-0 run sparked by four more kills from Sutaj and another kill from Scott, to take a 20-18 lead in the set. The Rams would then spark a run of their own to take a 24-22 lead over the Pioneers, the Texas Wesleyan would eventually take set four, 25-23, to tie the match up at 2-2 with a decisive fifth set up next.
The fifth set opened up with Texas Wesleyan taking early command with a 6-2 lead after a few kills and a couple of Pioneer errors. The Rams would extend their lead to 11-4 after three more errors by the Pioneers seemed to be the dagger. The Pioneers would battle back to cut their deficit to four points, but in the end, Texas Wesleyan came away with the fifth set victory, 15-9, giving the Rams the 3-2 match victory over the Pioneers.
During the fourth and fifth sets, the Pioneers totaled seven service errors that proved costly in tonight's, and Head Coach
Jim Giacomazzi referenced that by saying, "You look at the service errors we had between the fourth and fifth set, and that was the game. Our blocking was very poor tonight. They were defeated, but we just made too many errors and allowed them to get back into the match."
Coach Giacomazzi continued, "When we stay focused and disciplined, the results tend to show good things, but when you make too many mistakes against a tough team, you give them opportunities to get back in it."
Sutaj led the Pioneer attack tonight, finishing with 20 kills, a .241 hitting percentage, and three assists. Heidebrecht had 10 kills with a .171 hitting percentage, a service ace, and two block assists. Brzeczkowksa added eight kills with a .375 hitting percentage, a service ace, and six block assists. Bozzato finished with 43 assists, two kills, a .333 hitting percentage, and four block assists.
The Pioneers will look to bounce back Saturday, October 26
th where they'll stay in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for two more competitions First, the Pioneers will take on the SAC's first-place team, 22
nd ranked Nelson University, at 1:00 PM. The Pioneers will then take on Arlington Baptist University on the campus of ABU at 5:00 PM.
"We have a great opportunity ahead of us to win third place in the SAC and can put ourselves in a great position to host a conference tournament match if we stay focused and disciplined," said Coach Giacomazzi.
