Oklahoma Panhandle State University

SAC Volleyball Tournament Central

PLAINVIEW, Texas — The Oklahoma Panhandle State volleyball team (16-14) is moving on to the conference semifinals for the first time as a member of the Sooner Athletic Conference following a gutsy 3-1 (25-21, 16-25, 25-23, 25-23) victory Tuesday night at Wayland Baptist University (15-12).
 
Entering the match as the lower seed (fifth) versus the fourth-seeded Pioneers, the Aggies took control of the night early and punched back every single time WBU had momentum go its way.
 
OPSU survived a bit of a bumpy start to take a four-point lead in the opening set, 22-18, before Wayland Baptist earned the next two points and forced head coach Ilani Dalton into a timeout.
 
The Aggies responded with kills from Elena Kagiali and Emma Coburn to take three of the last four points and snag a 1-0 set advantage on the road.
 
The home team then blazed out of the gates in the second set, taking it handily as the rivals were quickly tied, 1-1.
 
Both teams found their stride in the third set, with the leads exchanging hands several times and the squads knotted 13-13 halfway through. Panhandle State then made its run with Taylore Alsaid at the service line and Coburn dominating in the middle to go ahead, 18-14. The visitors continued their run with kills from Kagiali and Skyla Stark, eventually taking a 24-20 lead.
 
Wayland Baptist would not go away easily, launching a comeback to cut the deficit to one in the third frame, 24-23, causing an Aggie timeout to regroup. OPSU turned to senior Ava Newby for the swing on the next point, and she hammered down a powerful kill to send the Aggies to the fourth set in front, 2-1.
 
Stark was on fire early in the fourth frame with three kills to help Panhandle State jump to a 6-2 lead. A pair of extended runs for the Pioneers then put the Aggies into a hole trailing 13-8, but Nyah Ulmer and Alsaid steadied the ship on their turns to serve, notching an ace and a kill, respectively.
 
Eventually, the fourth set came down to the wire tied at 23 as the Wayland crowd became energized. OPSU silenced the arena by earning the serve back for Alsaid at match point, and the junior took care of things herself with the clinching ace.
 
The statistics for the match were split very evenly across the board between the sides. For Panhandle State, Kagiali, Stark and Newby each finished with a dozen or more kills, set up by Mia Sanchez' 40 assists.
 
Winiffer Rodriguez came through with a clutch, career-best 32-dig performance, followed by Alsaid and Kagiali with 19 and 15 digs apiece. Coburn and Stark collected four and three blocks, respectively.
 
OPSU's victory was its third of the year in 3-1 fashion over WBU, and it has now won seven of the last 10 meetings in the series history.
 
What's up next: Panhandle State will try to keep its season alive and advance to the SAC Championship Game when it heads to the campus of Texas Wesleyan University to play top-seeded Nelson (23-9) on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m.