KINGSVILLE, Texas (March 22, 2021) – A primary goal for Oklahoma Christian's volleyball team was to make the Lone Star Conference postseason tournament during the renewed program's first season of competition.
That mission accomplished, the Eagles seek to answer a new question: How far can they go in the tournament? They'll find out starting Tuesday, when they will face Texas A&M-Commerce in a first-round game to be played at 6 p.m. at Texas A&M-Kingsville's Steinke Center.
The winner between OC (6-11) and TAMUC (6-6) will advance to face No. 8-ranked Texas A&M-Kingsville (12-0) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinals. The semifinals and final will be played on March 30 and 31 at a site to be determined.
"We started well this year," OC coach
Barry Wheeler said, "but we were still having too many errors and making too many tactical mistakes. But as we're progressing, we're making fewer and fewer of those mistakes. We're playing a lot cleaner volleyball. We've played more five-set matches than anyone in the conference. In the end, it comes down to who has the guts and will finish off the match and win it. We have improved quite a bit as the season has gone on."
TAMUC competed in a four-team division with Texas-Tyler, Dallas Baptist (Texas) and Texas Woman's this season, playing each of them four times and finishing second behind Texas-Tyler. Taryn Cast is the Lions' leading attacker, ranking 12th in the LSC in hitting percentage at .260. Celeste Vela is sixth in the league in assists (6.49 per set) while Riley Davidson is fourth in digs (5.11 per set).
OC's division included Arkansas-Fort Smith (the champion), Midwestern State (Texas) and Cameron. OC went 4-8 in divisional play for a third-place finish. Texas A&M-Kingsville swept through a division that included St. Edward's (Texas), Texas A&M International and St. Mary's (Texas).
In nonconference play, OC posted several impressive results, beating two Great American Conference foes in Southwestern Oklahoma State and Southern Nazarene and pushing Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association power Central Oklahoma to five sets in a match at OC.
For OC, freshman
Morgan Demuth ranks fourth in the LSC in blocks (1.08 per set) and sixth in hitting percentage at .273. The Eagles have two of the top four in the league in service aces, with
Karlee Alonzo (0.56 per set) leading the LSC and
Spencer Plato (0.46 per set) fourth.
"We thought, with the pod that we had, that we could probably make the conference tournament," Wheeler said. "We were able to pull that off. That was a goal that we've set out and achieved, which is awesome.
"Considering that we went through the conference season at 4-8 and qualified (for the tournament) and beat a couple of nice (nonconference) teams in Southwestern and SNU and competed with UCO, which is an established program – being able to say we are competing with these programs that have been established, that has been a real blessing to see and experience that."
