SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist serves up its second season through the Great American Conference and the National Christian College Athletic Association in 2017.
The Lady Bison won the regular season GAC title and were runners-up last year in the NCCAA while the Bison also went deep in the NCCAA tournament.
"We really enjoyed playing the teams in the GAC," said OBU coach
Peter McCorkle. "It's a competitive conference. Our women went 7-0 but they were tough matches. Our guys are hungry for our first conference win and we're looking forward to that."
The OBU women will be without last year's Nos. 1 and 2 singles player with
Anastasiya Baranova graduating and
Kateryna Shkot red-shirting this season.
Still, the Lady Bison are projected third in the conference and are expected to compete for the title.
"We're definitely going to miss Anastasiya, and obviously Kateryna will be in the same boat," said McCorkle. "I'm excited we have a great group of girls.
Olivia Charvat has had a fantastic four years and I'm looking forward to seeing her play higher in the lineup.
Madeleine Boepple had a great freshman season and the same with
Alex Bowers and
Caroline Abbe. And a couple new freshmen coming in will make an impact.
Kim Moosbacher had a great fall and we're looking forward to seeing some new faces and how they are going to do."
One of those new faces include one-year transfer
Rouxanne Janse Van Rensburg, who will compete for one of the top positions.
"I was very happy with our fall play from our girls," said McCorkle. "Olivia and Madeline did really well in the ITA regional and I'm really excited about them playing together. I'm also excited about putting Kim and Rouxanne together."
Megan Bowlin,
Alex Morales and
Kathryn Sild also will compete for time in the top six.
With injury and a couple of players playing soccer, the men's team didn't get a big chance to come together in the fall. But there still is a hunger on the team to win a national championship at the NCCAA level.
"We left the NCCAA happy with how we did but not content," McCorkle said. "Our goal is to go there and finish. We're returning
Luis Romero and Thomas Ackernecht,
Michael Vetter and Lucas Costello Branco. We got a couple new freshmen that we are really looking forward to seeing play. Senior Patrick Sims will be back for us as well."
Joining the team in the spring semester are newcomers
Teodoro Correa Franca,
Gianluca Galdi and
Kevin Andrusch.
Matias Le Fort came as a freshman in the fall and is joined by returner
Babji Atturu.
While both teams have a long road through tough GAC competition, both expect to reach the NCCAA national tournament.
"I think we want to win an NCCAA title," McCorkle said. "We set our sights on that and also to be more competitive in Division II. We're playing a lot tougher schedule. Our men are playing some regionally higher ranked teams. We want to be competitive in those matches and win those matches and most of all be competitive in the GAC. We're deeper this year with our men's team and we can be more competitive this year."
The season begins Feb. 11 with a match against Washburn in Oklahoma City.
