HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oklahoma Baptist moved into its third straight Great American Conference Tournament Final after a 3-0 win against Harding on Friday night in the semifinal round at Bank OZK Arena.
The win sets up a rematch with Arkansas Tech tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the championship. Earlier this season, the Golden Suns defeated OBU.
Friday's match with Harding saw
Malia Leatherland and
Avery Hellmuth each tally 11 kills to lead OBU's attack. For Leatherland, she became the GAC's all-time leader in kills passing SWOSU's Carly Zak (2013-16; 1,662) with 1,668 kills. Hellmuth also added three service aces and a couple of blocks while right-side hitter
Taneyah Brown contributed nine kills and three blocks.
Kaylee Buell dished out a match-high 36 assists while defensively,
Diana Carranza notched 27 digs and
Rylen Moore added 16. As a unit, the Bison had their highest dig count (80) in a three-set match this season.
First-set action was dominated early by the green and gold as they raced out to a 12-4 lead following a kill and solo block by
Audrey Poupard. The junior middle blocker tallied seven blocks in the match.
Harding, though, found a way to get back in the set. Down by eight, the Lady Bisons remarkably tied things up at 17 which forced an OBU timeout. Towards the end, and leading by one, OBU closed the set with a couple kills by Buell and Poupard, along with a
Kaelyn Ina ace.
The Bison then doubled their match lead. Trailing 7-6 early, OBU reeled off a 13-3 run to seize momentum. Hellmuth tallied seven of those points with six kills and an ace. Once more, Harding made things interesting as it got the scoreboard to within three points on two occasions. But the Bison wouldn't give up their lead. The last trio of points for OBU came via two kills and a block assist from Hellmuth and
Taryn Weber.
A dominant end to the third pushed the Bison into the GAC Final. Leading 17-16, OBU scored eight of the last nine to win 25-17. During that stretch, there were a pair of aces by Hellmuth and Ina; kills from Leatherland, Buell and Hellmuth; and blocks by Buell, Leatherland, Hellmuth and Poupard.
