OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 3, 2021) – In Oklahoma Christian's first two fall volleyball matches since 1983, the Eagles initially showed progress from their spring 2021 season, then slipped back into old habits – with the result a predictable split inside the Eagles' Nest.
OC opened the Eagle Invitational on Friday afternoon with an impressive 3-1 (25-13, 24-26, 28-26, 25-21) win over Bentley (Mass.), a team that was the 2019 Northeast-10 Conference champion but didn't play in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But in their second match, the Eagles committed 30 errors and fell 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-18) to Lubbock Christian (Texas).
"We took it on the chin (in the second match)," new OC coach
Jason Skoch said after his first matches on the Eagles' sideline. "We're going to have these moments this year. It's simple. Are we going to learn from them and try to shorten the gap, or are we going to keep having these recurring things? There's a lot of growing up to do.
"We knew it was going to happen. The schedule that I made is pretty demanding. But how are we going to respond to that? That's our message in the locker room. … We have to learn how to earn a W."
OC (1-1) came out sharp against Bentley (0-2), which had five starters back from its 2019 team that reached the NCAA Division II tournament. The Eagles didn't trail in the first set and steadily pulled away for the double-digit win, but the Falcons seized control of the second set with six straight points to go up 17-11.
Bentley led the set 19-12 before the Eagles rallied to pull even at 24-24, but Ellie Wheeler put the Falcons back up with one of her 10 kills before an attack error by OC ended the set and tied the match.
OC led the third set 16-6 before collapsing. Bentley used a 17-7 run to tie the set and subsequently had three set points, which the Eagles fought off on kills by
Hannah Rouse,
Spencer Plato and
Talby Duerksen.
Caitlynne Hudgens followed with another kill before a Bentley attack error gave OC the 28-26 set win.
The Eagles led most of the fourth set and sealed the win when Bentley's Ingrid Murphy committed an attack error on match point. Murphy, Wheeler and Shannon Ngo each had 10 kills for the Falcons while their 6-foot-4 middle blocker, Caitlin Wunder, had 12 points.
Morgan Demuth had 11 kills and a .500 attack percentage against the Falcons, while Hudgens and senior
Yolaine Lopez (in her first collegiate match since 2019) both had 10 kills.
Allyssa Hamlin and
Alexandra Aponte Torres each had 18 digs, with Plato adding 37 assists, 10 digs, two aces and six kills.
It was OC's second consecutive season-opening win since the university revived its volleyball program. In an abbreviated season this past spring, the Eagles began with
a five-set win at Southwestern Oklahoma State en route to posting a 6-12 record.
In the second match – a nonconference meeting between a pair of Lone Star Conference opponents – Lubbock Christian (1-1) simply took advantage of what OC gave the Chaparrals. In each set, the Chaparrals built an early lead and continually held off any rally attempts by the Eagles. OC led only twice in any set – at 5-4 in the first set and 1-0 in the third set.
OC committed 17 attack errors, three setting errors, seven service errors and three block errors, for a total of 30. By comparison, the Chaparrals had 18.
Hamlin had nine kills and 13 digs to lead OC in both categories. Aaliyah Gray and Sage Chain each had 10 kills for Lubbock Christian, while Kendall Mahaney had 19 digs. The match between the sister institutions was the third in OC program history, with Lubbock Christian posting straight-set wins over the Eagles during the 1979 and 1980 seasons.
"When you're competing, when someone pushes at you, you've got to learn how to push back," Skoch said. "There's a lot of steps that we're going through right now. It's a learning process."
OC will wrap up the first weekend of its season with matches on Saturday against another LSC foe, St. Mary's (Texas), at 12:30 p.m., followed by a rematch against Bentley at 4:30 p.m.
