Box Score Plainview – The Pioneers opened up Sooner Athletic Conference play on Friday night with their first win on the young season, defeating the Central Christian Tigers in dominant fashion in three straight sets.
Wayland Baptist (1-3, 1-0 SAC) got off to a strong start in the opening set after kills by junior
Fade Ogunbade and senior
Selma Sutaj gave the Pioneers the 7-3 lead. Ogunbade was dominant in the first set after totaling four kills, eight attacks, and helping the Pioneers to a 60% first set attack percentage compared to 45% for Central Christian. Libero Emily Buchberger was a defensive stalwart for the Pioneers in the opening set after tallying four digs and no receiving errors on four attempts. The Pioneers took the opening set from the Tigers by a score of 25-19.
The Pioneers completely overpowered the Tiger in set two, and this showed in the attacking percentages for each team. Central Christian had an attack percentage of 44% in the second set, whereas the Pioneers had a whopping 83% attack by set percentage in set two. The Pioneers had 8 kills from Ogunbade,
Klaudia Brzeczkowska, and Sutaj in the second set as the trio asserted their dominance at the net all night long. The Pioneers took set two by a score of 25-13.
The third and final set was the
Selma Sutaj show for the Pioneers as the senior outside-hitter made her impact known around the net with eight total kills in the set. Sutaj had 18 total attacks and a .389 hitting percentage in the third set, and most of the attack opportunities came from the sets of
Valentina Bozzato. Bozzato had five assists and five digs in the third set. Wayland Baptist had the advantage in attack by set percentage in the third set with 63% compared to the Tiger's 45%, and the Pioneers secured the 25-18 victory for the three-set sweep of the Tigers.
Wayland Baptist had nearly a two-week gap between tonight's contest and their previous game and head coach
Jim Giacomazzi was happy with how his team prepared during the break saying, "I gave our starters a challenge saying if the team isn't quite up to where we want to be, then we have to start holding them to a certain standard, so we've continued to be more focused and intense and hold ourselves to that standard."
Coach Giacomazzi continued talking about the team's servicing, "I was pleased that our servicing was better than what we've been doing. In our scrimmages, we were serving pretty tough. You see we had about 19 players suit up, and it's been good because we've had two really intense teams competing against each other in scrimmages, which will help us throughout the year. Even if everyone doesn't get a lot of playing time, it's been a great opportunity for us to continue to develop our players."
For the complete game statistics,
Selma Sutaj led the Pioneers with 11 kills, a .310 attack percentage, 12 service receptions without an error, 12 points earned.
Fade Ogunbade totaled eight kills, a .571 attacking percentage, two service aces, and 10 points earned. Sophomore
Klaudia Brzeczkowska had four kills, a .273 attacking percentage, and four points earned.
Valentina Bozzato had 24 assists, eight digs, and two solo blocks with an assisted block.
The Pioneers will host the Langston Lions on Saturday at 1:00 PM at the Hutcherson Center in another Sooner Athletic Conference matchup.
