TYLER, Texas – No. 12 Oklahoma Baptist had no trouble with St. Edward's on Friday morning at the UT-Tyler Dakota's Patriot Classic. The Bison rolled to a 3-0 win and improved their early-season record to 4-1.
Avery Hellmuth and
Taneyah Brown were electric on the offensive end as OBU connected on a season-best .379 attack percentage. The pair combined for 19 kills on 34 errorless swings (.558). Additionally,
Malia Leatherland tallied a match-high 15 kills with a .500 attack mark.
Defensively,
Diana Carranza and
Kaelyn Ina each notched double-digit dig totals while
Kaylee Buell handed out 35 assists, a match-high. The Bison defense also turned in a good performance holding St. Edward's, a team ranked ninth in DII in kills per set, to a season-low .064 attack percentage and 30 kills.
In the opening set, competition was close until a 9-0 run by the Bison blew the lid open. Trailing 14-13, Leatherland started the stretch with a kill from Hellmuth. Over the next eight sequences, Leatherland added two more kills while SEU contributed a half-dozen attack errors. OBU won 25-15.
OBU's match lead was then doubled in the second stanza. Hellmuth aided the Bison with four kills during an 11-3 run to start. The closest the Hilltoppers got after that was four points, 16-12, on a Jillienne Connell ace. By the end, the Bison won 25-16 and hit a match-best .485.
Oklahoma Baptist then completed the sweep with a 25-17, third-set win. The Bison scored the first half-dozen points which included a pair of kills from Brown. That lead ballooned to as many as nine points on a trio of occasions after that. OBU eventually prevailed 25-17 with a match-ending kill from
Destiny AbuBakir-Temple.
