SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist (22-9), winners of the Great American Conference and eighth seed of the Central Region, travels to play top-seed and second-ranked (AVCA) Nebraska-Kearney on Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in the NCAA Tournament. The Lopers (29-3) won the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
This will be the fourth all-time matchup between the two schools. UNK is 2-1 over the Bison. Most recently, OBU defeated the Lopers 3-2 on Feb. 27, 2021. As for NCAA Tournament play, the two institutions met in December of 2019 with UNK winning 3-0.
The winner of this match will move on to play either fourth seed St. Cloud State or fifth seed Missouri Western on Friday at 7 p.m. Below are notes on both teams.
Bison Notes
- OBU is playing in the NCAA Tournament for the third time. Its previous appearances saw a 3-0 loss to Concordia-St. Paul in 2023 and a 3-0 defeat to Nebraska-Kearney in 2019.
- Here are previous individual highs in those matches:
- Kills: 11 – Taneyah Brown vs. UNK (12/5/19)
- Assists: 20 – Rylen Moore vs. UNK
- Digs: 15 - Malia Leatherland vs. UNK
- As a team, OBU's best hitting performance was .266 vs. CSP two years ago.
- This fall, the Bison had the 15th-best team in DII in terms of digs per set (18.65).
- OBU was also 14th in attacks per set (39.39) and No. 25 in total blocks (255.0).
- Senior libero Karsyn Hunter has dialed up 559 digs, the 11th-best single-season total in OBU history. That mark is also 29th nationally.
- Hunter also recorded a program-record 61 digs in the GAC Tournament Semifinal versus Ouachita.
- Emily Boyer's 54 aces are a program-single season record and rank 25th in the nation.
- Leading the offense is Rylee Unruh. The GAC Tournament MVP tallied 261 kills and averaged 4.13 points per set, the 57th-best mark in Division II.
Lopers Notes
- Nebraska-Kearney is making its 26th straight NCAA Tournament appearance, the second-longest streak in the nation.
- The Lopers have played in two national title matches as well in 2005 and 2019.
- UNK will be the most talented team OBU has played this year. They rank top-10 in D2 in assists per set (13.51), blocks (2.64), kills (14.57) and total blocks (277.5).
- Setter Peyton Neff is eighth nationally with an 11.39 assists-per-set mark.
- Offensive teammates Carly Purdy and Emilee Lane are also potent, ranking third and fourth, respectively, in the MIAA in kills per set at 3.83 and 3.67.
- Defensively, Ellie Spang's 4.38 digs per set and 456 total digs were top-six marks in the MIAA.
- In 15 home matches this fall, UNK is 14-1. Its only home defeat was to Emporia State in four sets on Nov. 8.
