Siloam Springs – The Pioneers dropped a tough match in three sets at John Brown to move to 13-7 in Sooner Athletic Conference play, putting Wayland Baptist in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings with just two games to play.
Wayland Baptist (14-10, 13-7 SAC) opened the match tied with John Brown at 3 a piece after a kill from senior
Selma Sutaj, but the Golden Eagles answered with a 5-0 scoring run to open up an early 8-3 lead. The Pioneers cut their deficit to two after a kill from senior
Alyssa Vasquez made it 9-7, Golden Eagles.
The Golden Eagles went on their second 5-0 scoring run of the opening set, which extended their lead over the Pioneers to 14-7 and forced WBU into a timeout. The Pioneers would then cut their deficit to five after a kill from sophomore
Klaudia Brzeczkowska made it 15-10 in favor of the Golden Eagles. Wayland Baptist couldn't put a comeback together and fell short in the opening set, 25-15, to fall behind 1-0 in the match.
The Pioneers found themselves in a deep hole to begin the second set as the Golden Eagles scored the first eight points of the set. Junior
Carlee Heidebrecht scored the first point of the set for the Pioneers with a kill, and the kill sparked a 6-0 scoring run for the Pioneers that put them right back in the set. The Pioneers would battle back to tie the set up at 10-10 after a kill from Brzeczkowska and back-to-back kills from Sutaj.
Midway through the second set, the Pioneers jumped in front of John Brown, 17-15, after back-to-back kills from Vasquez, giving her three kills in the second set. The Pioneers continued to build momentum and extended their lead to 21-15 after kills from Vasquez and Brzeczkowska put the Pioneers on the verge of tying the match. Wayland Baptist held a 24-20 lead, but the Pioneers couldn't close the set and John Brown tied the score up at 24-24. The Golden Eagles would then score a service ace and a kill to sink the Pioneers in set two, 26-24, to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Pioneers jumped out to an 11-8 lead to open the third set after another kill from Vasquez, and a service ace from junior
Fade Ogunbade. Heidebrecht added two more points to the Pioneer lead with a kill and a service ace, making it 13-9, WBU. Brzeczkowska a junior
Jordan Schlageter extended the Pioneer lead to 16-10 in the third set with a kill each, but the Golden Eagles battled back to eventually cut their deficit to 17-16 after scoring four kills. Sutaj gave the Pioneers a 19-18 lead late, but the Golden Eagles would be gifted a few set errors from the Pioneers to earn the 25-22 win in the third set, completing the three-set sweep of the Pioneers.
"We had too many receiving errors and few too many bad passes. I thought our offense was great, and it showed in our hitting percentages, but if you don't have good passes, it's tough to get going," said Head Coach
Jim Giacomazzi referencing the Pioneer's struggles today.
Coach Giacomazzi continued, "We have to give credit to John Brown. They are a very good team. We know what we need to clean up heading into next weekend's matches against USAO and MACU."
Sutaj finished with a team-high 13 kills, a .423 hitting percentage, a service ace, and 11 digs. Brzeczkowska added eight kills with a .333 hitting percentage and a block assist. Heidebrecht scored seven kills with a .263 hitting percentage, a service ace, and a block assist. Vasquez finished with eight kills and a .160 hitting percentage.
The Pioneers will return home for the final two games of the regular season as they host Science and Arts (Okla.) on Friday, November 8
th at 7:00 PM, and then Senior Day against Mid-America Christian (Okla.) on Saturday, November 9
th at 1:00 PM.
