SHAWNEE – A battle between the top two teams in the Great American Conference is on the cards Thursday night as the Bison head to Weatherford to take on Southwestern Oklahoma State at 7 PM.
The top team in the GAC, Oklahoma Baptist currently owns a 10-1 mark in league play and is the only team in the conference with 20 or more wins this season. SWOSU is right behind OBU with a 9-2 GAC record and has won seven of their last eight. Oklahoma Baptist dropped the Bulldogs, 3-1, earlier this month inside Mabee Arena at the Noble Complex.
One of the top offensive teams in the league, OBU ranks second in kills with 13.20 while hitting a league-best .220. The Bison also rank third in assists/set at 12.22.
Malia Leatherland leads OBU with an average of 3.74 kills/set while swinging .277, which currently stands as the third-best hitting percentage for a season in program history.
Hayley Daniel and
Taneyah Brown have provided additional options on attack, averaging 2.92 and 2.16 kills/set, respectively.
That lethal offensive trio has been helped out by the service of
Rylen Moore and
Kaylee Buell. Moore owns a team-high 7.15 assists/set, while Buell has come off the bench to provide 4.23 assists/set.
Defensively, the Bison have held opponents to a GAC-low .136 hitting percentage while allowing just 10.74 kills/set.
Diana Carranza paces an OBU side that averages 17.61 digs/set with 4.87 digs/set to her credit. Daniel and Leatherland have displayed an all-around game with averages of 3.09 and 2.86 digs/set.
SWOSU enters Thursday's contest averaging 12.06 kills/set while swinging .175. The Bulldogs are led on offense by freshman Maicee Morgan, who ranks third in the GAC with 3.49 kills/set. Allie Hoang has handed out 9.67 assists/set; last week she reached the 2,000-assist career mark.
On the defensive end, SWOSU is second to OBU with a .155 hitting percentage, though opponents are averaging 11.93 kills/set. Kaitlyn Dillon ranks second in the GAC with an average of 5.20 digs/set.
