SHAWNEE – Avery Hellmuth filled up the stat sheet as No. 18 Oklahoma Baptist earned its fourth straight 3-0 win on Thursday night, this time against conference foe Southeastern Oklahoma State.
The Bison improved to 10-2 and 4-1 in conference play with the win.
Hellmuth tallied a game-high 11 kills, added four service aces and notched a pair of block assists for the Bison, a team that's won 10 of its last 11 matches.
Defensively, OBU was outstanding holding the visitors to a .019 attack percentage. Three players,
Rylen Moore,
Diana Carranza and
Malia Leatherland, all recorded at least 12 digs. Additionally,
Audrey Poupard,
Taneyah Brown and Leatherland contributed multiple blocks.
Nearly midway through the first set, the Bison found themselves down 15-12. What followed helped pave the way for another sweep. A 13-3 stretch from the home team helped the green and gold win 25-18. Poupard and Leatherland each had multiple kills while Hellmuth added two aces in the run. Plus, there were a pair of blocks.
In the second, the Bison doubled up SE early, 10-5, after an attack error from the Savage Storm. That hot start kept Southeastern down the rest of the way. OBU held its opponent to a -0.095 attack mark in the stanza which was ended by a kill from
D'Erricka Frierson and solo block from Poupard.
Competition was tighter in the third, but Oklahoma Baptist would seal the deal. Like the first, the Bison trailed 15-12 but followed with a 5-0 spurt to go up 17-15 after an error by Jessie Steele. The visitors responded this time, though, coming back to tie the game at 18 following a kill by Steele.
In the final stretch, kills from Leatherland, Hellmuth and
Taryn Weber along with a couple of SE errors, helped OBU win 25-21.
The Bison have the weekend off before returning to action on Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. against Arkansas-Fort Smith at Noble Complex.
