SHAWNEE – A host of Oklahoma Baptist volleyball players made life uneasy at the net as the Bison won in four sets against Southern Nazarene on Thursday inside the Noble Complex.
OBU moved its record to 9-8 and 3-1 in the GAC while the Storm dropped to 6-9 and 2-3.
Audrey Poupard,
Jenna West and
Avery Hellmuth all secured at least four blocks as the green and gold notched 12.0 total blocks and sent fans wearing OBU gear home with free Chick-Fil-A. Offensively,
D'Erricka Frierson registered a match-high 18 kills while hitting .342. Plus,
Rylee Martin handed out 30 assists. Defensively,
Maci Langford notched 20 digs, another match-high.
The first trio of sets were neck and neck, with set scores ending at 25-23, 25-23 and 26-24. Two of those went OBU's way.
In the opening stanza, though, it was the Crimson Storm who edged the host Bison. Things were tight after a
Jill Leslie kill had OBU up 12-11. But the next several sequences went in favor of SNU, and a 7-1 run capped off by a block assist from Whitney Bowie and Shantalle Demirjian made the tally 18-13.
The Bison responded with a run of their own and eventually went back in front 22-21 after a SNU error. During that stretch OBU had a trio of aces from Hellmuth and
Abrey Galt. However, at the end, back-to-back points from the Storm helped them win 25-23.
Second-set competition was intense too. An attack error had the Bison up 13-8 early, and they maintained that lead, but SNU eventually pulled the set to within two, 23-21, after a Poupard error. For OBU though, it would never relinquish the lead and by set's end got two service errors to prevail 25-23.
A set later, the score remained within two points the entire way before OBU won 26-24. Late, a Bowie kill tied the stanza at 24. Frierson and
Taneyah Brown then delivered for the Bison with two straight kills to push OBU ahead in the match 2-1.
Then in the fourth, the Bison closed the deal. Tied at 13, the green and gold hit a 6-2 stretch to seize control. During that run, Poupard and Leslie each had two kills and moved the hosts ahead 19-15. SNU did not respond after that, with OBU getting a few kills down the stretch from West, Hellmuth, Poupard, Frierson and Leslie.
OBU will return to the court on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. when it hosts Northwestern Oklahoma State.
