Saturday's volleyball competition for Oklahoma Baptist brought some close set scores but the Bison ended up falling to Concordia-St. Paul and Winona State 3-0 and 3-1.
MATCH ONE
The green and gold played CSP, the program with the most NCAA Division II National Titles (9), for the first time in program history. The Bison had their most competitive effort to date but ended up being defeated by 25-22, 25-20 and 28-26 scores.
CSP shook off a few OBU leads, four in fact, with the help of a solid offensive attack to win 25-22 in the first. Two of OBU's advantages came courtesy of Jenna West and Taneyah Brown. The last one, an ace by Brown, had the Bison ahead 16-14. The gears shifted, though, in favor of CSP. In fact, the hosts reeled off six straight to attain a 20-14 lead. By the end, the Golden Bears had prevailed 25-22, using a .353 attack mark to aid in the set.
OBU was playing strongly again in the second before CSP went on a 9-2 run to take a 2-0 match lead. Freshman Jh-Kyah Head posted back-to-back kills which boosted the Bison's advantage to 18-16. But like the first stanza, the Golden Bears found a late-set run. Highlighting CSP's nine points were two kills by Sophia Andersen and two aces from Teagan Starkey.
The Bison nearly forced a fourth set down 2-0. Jill Leslie helped lead with four kills and a pair of block assists. The last of those kills moved the team's lead to 21-17. A little later, OBU led 23-18 after a CSP attack error. On the precipice of their first set win of the year, the green and gold couldn't close. The Golden Bears rallied, held off three set points for the Bison and ended up winning 28-26.
MATCH TWO
Avery Hellmuth's 15 kills and five blocks sparked the Bison in their second match, this one against Winona State. In fact, OBU's performance was even better than earlier as the Warriors had their hands full almost all night.
The Warriors' 7-1 run midway through the first ignited a 25-18 victory before OBU came back to tie the match up in the second stanza.
In that frame, OBU's defense was outstanding, holding Winona to a -0.023 attack percentage. Early on, the Bison trailed 11-8 before the Warriors produced five errors, which helped OBU go on an 8-1 stretch. In addition to those miscues, the Bison got kills from West, Brown and Hellmuth to go ahead 16-12. The green and gold stayed in front the rest of the way and prevailed 25-22 after a block assist from Hellmuth and Brown.
A set later, OBU's offense was the one that didn't get in gear. Winona would prevail 25-15 as the Bison notched just four kills on 30 attempts. The Warriors went on a 7-1 run at one point to seize a 17-7 lead following a kill from Taylor Pagel.
The fourth and final set was one to remember. There were 41 combined kills as well as both teams saving set points to keep the stanza going. For OBU, it held a 24-23 lead after a Leslie kill before WSU scored two in a row to push the Bison to the brink. Brown tied it at 25 before a Hellmuth kill gave OBU set point again, 26-25. Once more the Warriors stopped the Bison from forcing a fifth set. By the end, WSU won 30-28 after an OBU attack error and kill by Madison Larson.
The Bison will return to play on Sept. 2-3 for its fall tournament. Their first match is Sept. 2 at 1 p.m. against Newman.
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