ST. Paul, Minn. – Oklahoma Baptist played very strongly against No. 2-ranked and perennial power Concordia-St. Paul on Thursday evening in the NCAA Tournament Central Region quarterfinal round. The Bison ended up falling in three sets, 25-16, 25-20 and 25-20 to end their season with a 22-9 overall record.
In her final match in a Bison uniform,
D'Erricka Frierson led the team with eight kills, including a .333 attack mark.
Avery Hellmuth added seven kills and two block assists while
Jh'Kyah Head registered a half-dozen kills with .417 attack mark. Plus, senior
Jenna West contributed five kills and a team-high seven digs.
As a unit, OBU fared pretty will against CSP hitting .266. In the team's second NCAA Tournament appearance, that's the highest it has ever connected at.
After two early kills by West, Frierson got into the mix and extended the Bison lead to 4-1 in the first. However, the Golden Bears quickly responded with seven points in a row. That stretch was capped off by Jasmine Mulvihill's point to make it 8-4. Hellmuth got the next point from the Bison courtesy of an assist by
Abrey Galt, but another CSP run gave it control. Five straight points followed including three aces by Mulvihill. The hosts eventually won 25-16 and recorded an incredible seven aces and notched a .500 attack percentage.
The second set saw the Bison stay a little bit closer to Concordia. That was due to a solid offensive attack in which OBU hit .324. While the Golden Bears got the first three points, OBU hung tough and pulled the tally to 7-5 CSP after another Hellmuth kill. Later in the stanza,
Jill Leslie delivered the team's 19th point. That connection moved the scoreboard to 22-19. However, CSP closed with a 3-1 run capped off by a Katie Mattson kill.
The final set was easily the best for the Bison on Thursday. They started out with a lead that they managed to keep through the majority of the set. Frierson connected with two kills to start, and later, after a CSP attack error, led 19-14. However, the Golden Bears found the energy needed to rally. Down by five, the hosts scored a 6-1 run with a trio of kills by Jamie Guptill. Then, with the score knotted up at 20, the Golden Bears got three more kills by Mattson and another by Sophia Andersen to win 25-20.
