SHAWNEE – Melody Donegan had a career-high 16 kills and Oklahoma Baptist volleyball remained unbeaten in Great American Conference action in a thrilling 3-2 win over Harding on Thursday, Oct. 1, at the Noble Complex.
The Bison (14-4, 6-0 GAC) dropped the first and fourth sets, but were dominant in sets two, three, and five as they picked up their first win over Harding (14-3, 4-2) since 2021 and increased their lead in the GAC to a full two matches thanks to losses by Arkansas Tech and Southwestern Oklahoma State on Thursday.
Thursday's first set was a back-and-forth battle between the teams with neither gaining a significant edge at any point. OBU led 20-19 in the late stages, but Harding ripped off six straight points to take a 25-20 first-set win and stun the home crowd.
Oklahoma Baptist roared back in the second set by taking a big early lead (7-2) and maintaining its advantage through most of the set. With a 23-17 edge in the final moments of the second set, the Bison would see their lead shrink to just two points (23-21), but an attack error by Harding and a kill from
Taya McReynolds gave OBU a 25-22 second-set win.
OBU stormed out of the gate in the third set by taking an 11-3 lead on a ball-handling error by Harding, and the Bison were never really threatened thanks to an 8-0 run that saw their lead balloon from 14-10 to 22-10.
Mackenzie Frazee knocked down the set-clinching kill for a 25-13 third-set victory.
Harding took the fourth set by a 25-16 final thanks in part to a late 5-0 run that saw its advantage go from two points (15-13) to seven points (20-13). Melaina Haines had back-to-back kills to close out the set.
The fifth set saw the Bison use another big scoring run to increase their lead from two points (6-4) to eight points (12-4) and got two kills from
Rylee Unruh in the final three rallies to wrap up their fifth-straight win with a 15-6 set victory.
Donegan led OBU with 16 kills and a .406 attack percentage while Unruh added 16 kills of her own and McReynolds finished with 13.
Emily Boyer had 50 assists, her fourth match this season with at least 50 assists.
Elle Parisi had 21 digs, while M. Frazee and
Addison Dale each contributed seven kills.
The Bison finished with 11 aces including four from Parisi, three from Unruh and two each from Boyer and
Ellie Gehrke. Haines paced Harding with 18 kills, while Ella Drake and Philomina Klotz each had 11.
OBU's victory over Harding marked the 450th win of head coach
Anna Howle's career. She is now 450-189 in her 19 seasons at the helm of the program.
NOTES
- With her 450th career victory, Howle now ranks 26th among active Division II head coaches in wins and is 96th among head coaches at all divisions.
- Emily Boyer increased her career assists total to 2,980 and needs just 20 more to become the second player in program history with 3,000 career assists.
- Thursday's win snapped a four-match losing streak to Harding dating back to 2021, and improved OBU's record in the series to 7-8 in the DII era.
- The victory also gives OBU its best start in GAC play (6-0) since joining the league in 2015.
- In addition to her 16 kills, Rylee Unruh also had 15 digs to record her 10th kill-dig double-double of the season.
- Unruh's three service aces against Harding increased her career total to 154, with 129 coming at Oklahoma Baptist. She is now fourth in program history in career aces.
- Thursday's match was the Bison's Pink Out match to help raise money in the fight against cancer. Elaine Renfrow, mother of OBU junior Reese Renfrow and a breast cancer survivor, gave the invocation prior to the match.
- Fans can contribute to OBU's Dig Pink fundraiser through the Side-Out Foundation.
UP NEXT
Oklahoma Baptist will look for its sixth win in a row, and a 7-0 start to GAC play, when it hosts Arkansas Tech on Friday, Oct. 2, at 4 p.m. at the Noble Complex. The Bison will head to Arkansas next weekend for matches with Southern Arkansas (Oct. 8) and Arkansas-Monticello (Oct. 9).
