OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 4, 2021) – It's probably not a lesson Oklahoma Christian volleyball coach Jason Skoch wanted to learn about his team – because it involved a loss – but it was a valuable one nonetheless: the Eagles are able to quickly bounce back from a disappointing result.

OC dropped a five-set thriller to St. Mary's (Texas) in their opener on Saturday in the second day of the Eagle Invitational, failing to convert on a match point before falling 18-16 in the final set. But a couple of hours later, OC rebounded with an impressive 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 25-20) sweep of Bentley (Mass.) in the Eagles' Nest.

OC (2-2) dropped its two matches against Lone Star Conference foes – St. Mary's and Lubbock Christian (Texas) – during the two-day event. But the Eagles also swept two matches from a Bentley team that won the Northeast-10 Conference title and made the NCAA Division II tournament in 2019, the last season in which the Falcons played.

"We are playing better," said Skoch, who's been the Eagles coach for only about three months. "I wish we could have finished out against St. Mary's. But we had a tall order to come back and play immediately (against Bentley) and we did well.

"We are developing for sure. The teams we played this weekend were talented and it showed our progress, as well as what we need to keep pushing toward."

Against St. Mary's (3-0), OC actually outscored the Rattlers over the course of the match – even though the Rattlers won 26-24, 25-21, 26-28, 18-25, 18-16 – and posted a higher attack percentage (.208 for the Eagles, .143 for St. Mary's). After falling behind by two sets, the Eagles staged a stirring comeback, surviving overtime in the third set before prevailing on kills by Caitlynne Hudgens and Morgan Demuth.

OC scored the first four points of the fourth set and controlled it the rest of the way to tie the match. The Eagles carried that momentum into the fifth set and led 13-10 before the Rattlers pulled even on kills by Alicia Virthe, Alissa Tolbert and Virthe again, then earned their first match point on another kill by Tolbert.

The Eagles fought off that match point and then earned their own on a block from Demuth and Hannah Rouse, but a bad set by Alexandra Aponte Torres allowed St. Mary's to tie the set at 16-16. Demuth committed an attack error to give the Rattlers another set point and Julia Aleman finished off the win for St. Mary's with a kill.

Four Eagles – Hudgens (17), Allyssa Hamlin (17), Demuth (16) and Lily Saenz (10) – recorded double-digit kills, with each of them either setting or tying their career high in that statistical category. Hamlin, with 25 digs, and Hudgens, with 14 digs, each recorded a double-double. Demuth and Saenz each had six blocks while Rouse and Talby Duerksen each had five.

Tolbert had 20 kills and 24 digs to lead the Rattlers.

OC led the first set against Bentley 24-21 before the Falcons tied the set, but Demuth and Rouse sealed the set win for the Eagles with kills. The Eagles built an eight-point lead in the second set and held off a late challenge by Bentley (0-4) by scoring the final four points. Aponte Torres served three aces in the set for OC.

The Falcons took a 5-0 lead in the third set, but behind the serve of Aponte Torres, OC scored eight straight points to go ahead 11-8. Bentley led 19-18, but Jessica Souza started a 6-1 run to end the match with a service ace.

OC had eight aces in the match, including five from Aponte Torres, to go with 25 digs. Duerksen and Demuth led the Eagles offensively with nine kills each, with Demuth posting an impressive .571 attack percentage.

OC will co-host another festival next weekend with Central Oklahoma. OC will host Newman (Kan.) and East Central on Friday, then will host Western Colorado next Saturday afternoon before traveling to UCO for a Saturday night match.