DURANT, OK – A rare poor offensive night proved too much to overcome as #22 Oklahoma Baptist volleyball fell to Southeastern Oklahoma State, 3-0, in a Great American Conference road match on Thursday, Oct. 22 at Bloomer Sullivan Gym.
The Bison (19-5, 11-1 GAC) dropped their first GAC contest of the season as the Savage Storm (9-14, 4-7) exacted a measure of revenge after being swept by OBU back on Sept. 8 in Shawnee.
Southeastern raced out to a 7-1 lead in the first set and led 20-13 before a 6-0 run by Oklahoma Baptist nearly evened things up at 20-19.
The Bison held set point at 24-22, but the Savage Storm staved off defeat several times before finally putting OBU away 28-26 to take a 1-0 match lead.
The second set was much more competitive early on as no team led by more than five at any point in the set. Down 23-20 in the late stages, the Bison mounted a 3-0 run to tie the set at 23-23 and force the Savage Storm to take a timeout.
The break in momentum would prove to be huge for Southeastern, which scored the next two points for a 25-23 set victory and a 2-0 match lead.
In the third and final set, Southeastern again got out to an early lead (6-1) and was never really threatened en route to a 25-14 set victory to complete the sweep of OBU.
Rylee Unruh led the Bison attack with 15 kills, while
Emily Boyer had a team-best 27 assists, and
Elle Parisi led the team with 22 digs. The Bison hit a season-low .092 on the attack while the Savage Storm connected at a .184 clip.
Despite the loss Oklahoma Baptist still controls its own destiny, needing two more wins to clinch the top seed in the GAC Tournament, and three to win an outright GAC regular-season title.
NOTES
- Oklahoma Baptist saw its season-high 10-game win streak snapped and also saw its four-match win streak against Southeastern come to an end.
- The 3-0 loss is the first time that Bison have been swept by the Savage Storm since Nov. 8, 2016.
- OBU's .092 attack percentage is its lowest since being held to .076 in a 3-1 loss to Southwestern Oklahoma State on Nov. 4, 2025
- The Bison dropped to 29-7 all-time against Southeastern, including a 21-3 record during the Division II era.
- It was OBU's first road loss to the Savage Storm since Oklahoma Baptist moved to D2 in 2015.
- Unruh's 15 kills and 16 digs at Southeastern give her 15 double-doubles this year.
- The performance moved her to 993 kills and 1,019 digs during her OBU career.
- Parisi's 22 digs marked her fifth performance this season with at least 20 digs.
- Boyer tallied four aces on Thursday, giving her 149 in her career. She entered the week ranked 14th among active Division II players in career aces.
UP NEXT
The Bison will face a stiff road test on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at Southern Nazarene before welcoming Southwestern Oklahoma State to the Noble Complex on Oct. 29.
