Oklahoma City – The Pioneer Volleyball squad battled back to win a massive road Sooner Athletic Conference at Mid-America Christian (Okla.) in a five-set thriller. The win snaps a 10-match losing streak for the Pioneers at the hands of MACU.
Wayland Baptist (7-6, 7-3 SAC) found themselves down 14-5 to the Evangels in the opening set, but the Pioneers were able to chip away at the deficit and make it an 18-15 score in favor of MACU after back-to-back kills by senior
Selma Sutaj and sophomore
Klaudia Brzeczkowska. Wayland Baptist ultimately couldn't overcome the early deficit and dropped the opening set, 25-20.
The Pioneers opened the second set on the attack as they jumped out to an early 6-2 lead, sparked by two service aces from junior
Carlee Heidebrecht and two kills from junior
Fade Ogunbade. Wayland Baptist extended their second set lead to 12-6 thanks to two more kills from Brzeczkowska and an ace from Sutaj. The Pioneers dominated the second set, winning 25-19 after Ogunbade capped it off with her fourth kill of the set – evening the match at 1-1.
Set three was a back-and-forth battle between the two SAC opponents to start, but MACU gained the momentum and grabbed a 15-11, forcing the Pioneers to use a timeout. The Pioneers scored the next two points out of the timeout including a Brzeczkowska kill to make it 17-13. The Evangels extended their lead to 19-14 and seemed as if they were about to cruise to an easy third set win, but the Pioneers scored the next four points. including three of those coming by way of kills for Heidebrecht, making it 19-17. The Pioneers tied the third set at 22 after another kill by Ogunbade, but MACU went on to win set three, 25-23, to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Wayland Baptist opened the fourth set in a slump and fell behind 5-2 to prompt an early Pioneer timeout. The timeout was successful, because the Pioneers scored the next three points to tie the set, including two kills by Sutaj. With the score tied at 15, the Pioneers found a spark and scored the next six points to take a 21-15 lead. The Evangels battled back and tied the match up at 22, but a few Evangel attack errors proved costly, allowing the Pioneers to win the fourth set, 25-23, to force a decisive fifth set.
Winning the fourth set gave the Pioneers all the momentum heading into the fifth set, and it showed early as Wayland Baptist jumped out to a 6-3 lead after an ace by senior
Alyssa Vasquez and a kill by Ogunbade forced the Evangels to use a timeout. The Pioneers would push their lead to 11-6 after another Heidebrecht kill. The Pioneers held a 13-9 lead and went on to secure the 15-9 win in the fifth set after back-to-back kills by Brzeczkowksa and Ogunbade.
The win puts Wayland Baptist at 7-3 in Sooner Athletic Conference play and tied for third in the overall standings with John Brown and Oklahoma City. The Pioneers have picked up some big wins over the past few weeks to begin conference play including home wins over Texas Wesleyan and John Brown, and now a road win over Mid-American Christian (Okla.), which could prove to be beneficial for the Pioneers down the final stretch of the season when it comes to conference tournament seeding.
"It's thrilling to have a victory. The ladies worked hard, and the games are starting to become more natural to them. We have to have the attitude and belief that we're going to win every match we play, and I think we did that tonight," said Head Coach
Jim Giacomazzi referencing to his team's performance Friday night.
Coach Giacomazzi continued, "We had some good defense tonight, Carlee was great and had a lot of digs. Fade, Selma, and Klaudia attacked well, and that was one of our better blocking games. We block for the cure in October, and we donate $10 to the Susan G. Komen foundation for every block, so tonight was just a great night for us and I'm proud of the way we played."
Ogunbade finished the victory over MACU with 17 kills, a .316 hitting percentage, and four block assists. Brzeczkowska added 14 kills with a .433 hitting percentage and five block assists. Sutaj scored 10 kills with a .189 hitting percentage, two service aces, 12 digs, and two block assists. Heidebrecht added eight kills with a .207 hitting percentage, four service aces, a solo block, and 18 digs. Bozzato had 43 assists, nine digs, and two block assists.
The Pioneers will look to make it a 2-0 road weekend as they travel up the road to Chickasha, Oklahoma to challenge the Drovers of Science and Arts (Okla.) Saturday, October 5
th. The match is set to begin at 1:00 PM.
