SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist's home opener went in its favor on Tuesday night as the 18
th-ranked Bison rolled to a 3-0 win over the visiting East Central Tigers.
The victory moved the green and gold's record to 7-2 and 1-1 in the Great American Conference.
A commanding tone was established in the opening set as the Bison hit .533 and tallied just one attack error.
The match was opened with a 5-1 OBU run as
Taryn Weber got a couple of kills. Later, the Bison sent the home crowd into a frenzy scoring eight of nine points to balloon the lead to 20-9. During that stretch,
Avery Hellmuth had two kills while
Diana Carranza added an ace. By the end, the Bison won 25-12 as
Malia Leatherland contributed three kills late.
In the second, East Central found a bit more continuity and kept things close early.
An Ilani Myers kill brought the tally to 10-7, however, the Tigers didn't keep pace with the Bison after that point.
Audrey Poupard and Weber helped the home squad with four kills over a 6-1 run to boost the Bison lead to 16-8. At the end, the final point for OBU, a solo block by Poupard, moved the scoreboard to 25-17 and a 2-0 match lead.
Oklahoma Baptist then closed the door in the third. Trailing 16-11 after another Weber kill, ECU saw the home team run off five more points, four of which were by Tiger error, to drown out any chance of a comeback. The Bison eventually prevailed 25-16 as
Rylen Moore fed
Brooklyn Fluke for the match's final point.
Next on the schedule for OBU is a road date at Northwestern Oklahoma (2-10, 1-1 GAC) on Friday at 7 p.m.
