SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist (7-6, 1-1 GAC) hit a season-high .333 as it defeated East Central (5-9, 0-3 GAC) in three sets on Thursday during the team's home opener at the Noble Complex.
Key Leaders
- S Rylee Martin: Led the Bison with 23 assists.
- OH D'Erricka Frierson: Tallied a team-high 10 kills.
- OH Lauren Safrit: Notched 11 digs and nine kills.
- MB Jill Leslie: Recorded a match-high four blocks.
- OBU's defense helped force ECU into 20 errors and held the Tigers to a .114 attack mark.
First Set
The opening stanza started off with a bang as OBU led from start to finish, winning 25-18. The biggest discrepancy in the first was kills. OBU had 16 while ECU found seven.
Jh'Kyah Head and Frierson each tallied four while
Avery Hellmuth notched three. In a blink of an eye, OBU led 7-2 after a Tigers error. The green and gold then ballooned its lead to 18-8 after Leslie and Frierson teamed up for a block. By set's end, the Bison hit .306 while ECU was held to a .059 mark.
Second Set
OBU's offense was even more potent a set later. It hit .394 with only one attack error on 33 swings. Safrit led the assault with six kills and a blistering .500 attack percentage. Fellow classmate
Emily Boyer added eight assists while defensively,
Jenna West and
Maci Langford combined for 10 digs. Furthermore, Leslie had two solo blocks while Hellmuth and Head each tallied two block assists. Like the first, OBU never trailed and with the score reading 17-15, it scored five in a row to pull away. Safrit had two kills in that stretch while Hellmuth, Head and Safrit all attained blocks.
Third Set
The green and gold rushed past ECU early to solidify its sweep. Boyer's ace made it 8-2 which led to a Tigers timeout. The visitors never really got any closer after that. In fact, ECU only got to within five a couple of times. Hellmuth had four kills on eight swings to lead the offense while Martin dished out nine assists. For the third straight set, the Bison hit above .300 and would win 25-18.
On The Horizon
A road match at Southern Nazarene (10-4, 2-1 GAC) is next for the Bison on Sept. 26.
