MAGNOLIA, AR – Rylee Unruh and Taya McReynolds each tallied double-digit kill totals as Oklahoma Baptist volleyball downed Southern Arkansas, 3-2, in a Great American Conference contest on Thursday, Oct. 8 at the W.T. Watson Athletic Center.
 
The Bison (16-4, 8-0 GAC) earned their 11^th straight victory over the Muleriders (5-14, 1-7) and extended their current winning streak to seven matches.
 
Neither team was able to gain much of an edge in the first set as the squads stayed within three points of each other for the majority of play.
 
Southern Arkansas finally broke through with a 4-0 run in the late stages to grab a 20-15 lead, but OBU rallied back to tie things at 20 and staged a 5-0 run of its own to close things out on Morgan Hamel's kill and take a 25-22 first-set win.
 
The Muleriders would be the victors in the second set, also by a 25-22 score. Southern Arkansas led nearly the entire set and despite a late rally by the Bison, was able to hang on to tie the match at 1-1.
 
Oklahoma Baptist scored the first three points of the third set and never trailed en route to a 25-19 set victory and a 2-1 match lead. Southern Arkansas hit just .075 in the set as OBU's defense did a fantastic job of keeping the Mulerider offense at bay.
 
The fourth set was a near repeat of the first two, as neither team was able to build a sizeable lead.
 
Oklahoma Baptist was the first to hit 20 points on a Southern Arkansas attack error to make it 20-18, but the Muleriders rallied back to win 25-23 and tie the match at 2-2.
 
In the fifth set, the Bison took a two-point lead at 3-1, but the teams would essentially swap points the remainder of the way until the Muleriders took a 13-11 lead.
 
With their backs to the wall, the Bison rallied for four points in a row to earn a 15-13 set win on Mackenzie Frazee's kill to earn their seventh victory in a row and stay unbeaten in GAC play.
 
McReynolds (19) and Unruh (18) led OBU in kills while Madi Barnes (19), Unruh (13), and Elle Parisi (12) each had at least 10 digs. Barnes, making her first career start, also finished with a team-high 25 assists while freshman Sydney Lavender notched 23 of her own.
 
The Muleriders were led by an incredible effort from Brinklee Dauenhauer, who finished with 28 kills on 70 attacks.
 
Oklahoma Baptist hit .244 for the match while Southern Arkansas hit .202. The big difference came at the net, where the Bison tallied 13 blocks to Southern Arkansas' six.
 
NOTES

• Oklahoma Baptist improved to 11-0 all-time against the Muleriders. Thursday's five-setter was the third time in the series that the teams have gone to five sets (2015 & 2017).
• Barnes made her first career start after appearing in 40 matches over the past two seasons for the Bison.
• OBU's seven-match win streak is its best since winning nine in a row during the 2023 season, a streak that spanned six regular-season and three GAC Tournament matches.
• The win streak is the Bison's longest regular-season win streak since winning eight in a row during the 2022 campaign.
• Thursday's victory was the 452^nd of Anna Howle's career, leaving her just 48 shy of 500 career coaching victories.
• McReynolds' 19 kills marked a career-high for the senior, while Unruh tallied her 12^th kill-dig double-double of the season. It was also her 12^th performance with 15 or more kills.

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Oklahoma Baptist finished out its weekend with a match against Arkansas-Monticello on Friday at 4 p.m. at Steelman Field House. The Bison have swept the Boll Weevils in each of the last eight meetings.