Bison Beat Out Bulldogs, 3-0

WEATHERFORD, Okla. - Thursday night at Southwestern Oklahoma State's Pioneer Cellular Event Center, the Oklahoma Baptist Bison (16-9, 10-2 GAC) faced off against the 12-10 SWOSU Bulldogs.

This match served as their second meeting this year, with their first ending in a 3-1 Bison win at OBU's Noble Complex a month ago. Although they had the home-court advantage, by night's end, the Bulldogs were trampled by OBU with a final score of 3-0, snapping the Bulldogs' 19-match home winning streak.
 
Beginnings of the first stanza saw the Bison warming up and the Bulldogs fired up behind a solid home crowd. SWOSU started the set with two points, but once OBU's freshman Rylee Martin caught a whiff of the fire, she helped the Bison get in on the action. Trailing 9-8, Martin assisted on kills by Taneyah Brown and Jill Leslie to help OBU go up 11-9. SWOSU did tie things at 11 before the Bison connected on a 6-1 run. Leslie has two aces, while Avery Hellmuth and Brown added kills.
 
By set's end, the Bison had secured a 25-18 win and held SWOSU to a .085 attack mark.
 
The second saw the Bulldogs still trying to get their spark back from the cooling effect of their first-set loss. Despite these efforts, they couldn't seem to match the competitive spirit of the Bison.  Though the Bulldogs almost doubled their hitting percentage, OBU's juniors D'Erricka Frierson and Jenna West accounted for seven kills - taking the Bison's hitting percentage to .385. With this, OBU secured the second set with a score of 25-14. 
 
Trailing 2-0, the Bulldogs came into the third with more bite as Zoe Sparks and Terez Chavez stepped up to put some kills on the board. With this, the beginning of the stanza was marked by back-and-forth points for the teams.
 
Once SWOSU hit their sixth point, OBU pulled ahead with an 8-2 stretch to seize control, 16-8. In that rally, Audrey Poupard had a kill and block while Frierson contributed two kills. From then on out, it was a game of catch-up. Though the Bulldogs did manage to tie the set at 20, the Bison were able to finalize their win with a 25-21 final-set score. West contributed two aces at the end, squashing the hosts' hopes of pushing things to a fourth set.
 
Next on the schedule for the Bison is a home match against the East Central on Oct. 25 at 7:00 p.m.