Resilient Lady Bison Outlast Ouachita

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Box Score (html)
 
ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Oklahoma Baptist Volleyball showed great resilience on the road Thursday night, outlasting Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, 3-2 (14-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 15-13). The Lady Bison are now 5-1 on the season in Great American Conference play.
 
The first set started off as a back-and-forth affair, with Nicole Fleitman and Sophia Couto pacing the team with a combined four kills to keep the Lady Bison within striking distance at 9-8. Unfortunately, OBU's offense went cold down the stretch, allowing a lengthy run that put the set at 20-10 and forcing a pair of Lady Bison timeouts. Cadyn Laing and Shekinah Sharpe tried to spark the offense late in the set, but it was to no avail as OBU would fall 25-14 in the first frame.
 
A tight affair in the second set, neither team was able to create much distance until OBU got a two-point lead at 17-15 thanks to a combo block by Laing and Rachel Richie that was followed by a score for Couto, forcing an Ouachita timeout. The timeout didn't faze the Lady Bison though, who strung together a 4-1 run after the stoppage in play thanks to kills by Richie and Fleitman that were paired with a couple of Tiger errors. Oklahoma Baptist claimed four of the last five points in the set, clinching a 25-20 set win as Fleitman found a weak point in Ouachita's defense.
 
With the match tied at 1-1, Oklahoma Baptist jumped out to a quick 3-1 lead off another Fleitman score in between two errors from the hosts. However, a timeout would prove necessary as OBU found themselves in an 8-3 hole soon after. The Lady Bison's deficit grew after the timeout, ballooning to 18-11. Oklahoma Baptist wouldn't go down quietly, putting together a furious rally, winning nine of the next 12 points thanks to a combination of blocks by Kynnedy Myers, Laing and Couto.  Sierra VeraCruz then recorded an ace, pulling the match to a manageable 21-20. The Lady Bison rally concluded by drawing level at 23-23 thanks to another OBU block, this time by Laing and Fleitman, but Ouachita would win the next two points to claim a 2-1 lead.
 
Needing to take the fourth set to extend the match, Oklahoma Baptist wasted no time in jumping out to an 8-3 lead that forced an early timeout by the Tigers. That lead would expand to 12-5 after the timeout thanks to an ace by Myers. Despite the excellent play by the Lady Bison, Ouachita was able to close the gap to 14-13. Head coach Anna Howle used a timeout to stymie the run, and the move bore fruit as OBU regained a sizeable lead capped by a Richie kill at 18-14. Fleitman and Couto laid down two kills for OBU's final two points, knotting the match up at 2-2.
 
In the decisive fifth set, the Lady Bison found themselves trailing 8-6 at the turn after leading as recently as 5-3 off an Ouachita service error. A resilient OBU side fought back with a 7-0 run, powered by four kills from Richie, to claim a 13-8 lead. Though the Tigers fought off one match point, the Lady Bison wouldn't be denied as Laing laid down the winner to take the set 15-13 and the match 3-2.

"I told our team before the game that I wanted to out-dig Ouachita because, defensively, they are very good," said Howle. "We struggled to do that at first, but when we defend like we did in the fourth and fifth set we are a very hard team to beat.

"This was a battle between two of the top setters in our conference and I thought Kynnedy led our team extremely well in tight moments. We had a lot of people step up tonight and it was a great team effort." 

Fleitman paced the team with 16 kills, while Laing had 14 and Richie laid down a career-high 10. The Lady Bison scored 62 kills on the night, their most in five sets this season, as six different OBU players had at least four kills.
 
Myers came up big for OBU, standing toe-to-toe with the GAC's leading setter for a match-high 51 assists, the first time she's topped the 50-assist plateau this season. The sophomore completed her night with 14 digs for her tenth double-double of the season, and also add five total blocks.
 
Sharpe and VeraCruz covered the floor well on defense, recording 30 and 23 digs respectively. The Lady Bison recorded 12 total blocks, including six blocks by Laing and five by Couto, the second straight match the Brazilian has recorded five blocks.
 
The Lady Bison are back in action tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. as they travel across the ravine in Arkadelphia to take on Henderson State.