SHAWNEE – The 23rd-ranked Oklahoma Baptist volleyball team finally returned home for the first time since Jan. 26 and looked as if they didn't miss a beat, hitting a season-high .320 and rolling rival Southern Nazarene in straight sets, 25-8, 25-13, 25-14.
The Bison finished with 41 kills to a season-low 10 errors on 97 attacks while holding the Crimson Storm to only 19 kills and 24 errors with a negative hitting percentage of -.044.
OBU held a 3-1 advantage in aces, a 9-5 edge in blocks, a 40-16 lead in assists, and a 56-39 upper hand in digs. The Bison simply dominated every aspect of the match.
And that started from the very first serve.
OBU opened the match with eight straight points, including four kills from
Taneyah Brown during the rally. After SNU finally got on the board, OBU tacked on four more points to take a 12-1 lead, carrying all the momentum from the first whistle.
The Bison completely overwhelmed SNU both offensive and defensively, hitting .520 as a team in the first set with 15 kills to two errors and holding the Crimson Storm to four kills and nine errors as well as a -161 hitting percentage.
Brown was the leading factor, coming out nearly unstoppable with seven kills while SNU could get nothing by
Audrey Poupard, who had five block assists in the first set alone.
Malia Leatherland added four kills including the final one to clinch a dominant 25-8 opening set.
SNU stayed even in set two for the first three points, but OBU again used a rally, this time taking advantage of Crimson Storm errors to race out to an 8-3 lead. SNU would cut it down to 8-6 before OBU scored six of the next seven points behind Leatherland and Poupard to take a 14-7 lead.
The OBU defense continued to shine, holding Southern Nazarene to -.025 hitting as the block party began again with Leatherland, Poupard, and
Taryn Weber all getting in the mix.
With the score at 19-12, the Bison rattled off five straight points including two straight service aces from
Kaelyn Ina. OBU would take a 2-0 lead with SNU's eighth error of the set to win it 25-13.
In the third set, SNU kept it close early on before OBU got kills from
Avery Hellmuth and Leatherland as well as an unreal back-and-forth point that resulted in a kill from
Kaylee Buell to lead 9-4. OBU kept their foot on the gas petal, riding a game-high 17 kill set to build another massive lead. Weber finished the match off with back-to-back kills to finish off the Crimson Storm, 25-14.
It was an all-around amazing effort from the Bison as Leatherland led the way with 13 kills on .370 hitting while Brown added nine kills on .421 hitting and Weber hit .450 with nine kills. Hellmuth was next in line with three kills and a .750 hitting percentage.
Buell added 26 assists on the night to go with 13 digs. Ina had the ony service aces on the night with three.
Defensively, Buell led the way with 13 digs while
Diana Carranza added nine and Leatherland followed with six.
Blocks were a major key with Poupard finished with five block assists and two solo blocks while Brown added three block assists and Leatherland followed with two.
SNU was led by Whitney Bowie and Grace Miracle with six kills while Breckynn Myers had 16 assists. Logan Matthews picked up 14 digs.
OBU moves to 4-0 on the season and will hope to move up the AVCA National Rankings on Wednesday. The Bison return to action on Friday as they head to Wichita for some match ups against top opponents that will not count towards their record, beginning with Newman on Friday at 9 a.m. and Washburn later that afternoon.
The next regular season contest will come on March 2nd as OBU will take on Southeastern Oklahoma State in Durant at 2 p.m.
