OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University faces Friends (Kan.) at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20 in Wichita, Kan., in the NAIA Volleyball Championship Opening Round.
The Stars (22-11) broke into the NAIA volleyball rankings for the first time ever at No. 24 in the final poll. OCU clinched its first volleyball national-tournament berth by winning the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament for the first time Saturday, Nov. 13 in Shawnee, Okla.
The winner of the NAIA Championship Opening-Round match Saturday advances to the NAIA Championships on Nov. 30-Dec. 4 in Sioux City, Iowa. The top 11 teams in the NAIA rankings plus host team Briar Cliff (Iowa) clinched berths in the NAIA Championships. The following 24 teams in the rankings comprise the field for the NAIA Championship Opening Round. To see the entire field, click here.
OCU knocked off Wayland Baptist (Texas) 14-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-21 on Saturday. Xiaoting Ma, a senior right-side hitter from Dalian, China, notched 22 kills and 25 digs en route to winning the SAC Tournament most valuable player.
"We were very focused and steady," OCU coach Jen Gomez said. "We never got flustered, and we battled our way through."
Ma earned the SAC most valuable player and hitter of the year awards this year. She leads OCU with 512 kills, a .270 hitting percentage and 4.03 kills and 4.50 points a set. Ma has added 3.73 digs, 0.39 blocks and 0.24 aces a set.
A two-time all-American, Ma has become OCU's all-time leader in kills with 1,347, surpassing Whitney Kress' previous record of 1,115. Ma broke the single-match kill record with 28 against John Brown (Ark.) on Oct. 19 at Abe Lemons Arena. She took NAIA player of the week for the second time in her career for Oct. 18-24 and SAC player of the week a league-high four times this year.
"This is a testament to the heart and will of our team," Gomez said of the Stars' performance in the SAC Tournament. "They are playing for Sarah Ma."
Alex Benbrook, a junior middle blocker from Enid, Okla., has topped OCU with 116 blocks, 82 block assists, 34 solo blocks and 0.91 blocks a set. Benbrook has averaged 2.28 kills and 2.87 points a set. A two-time first-team all-SAC selection, Benbrook picked up SAC hitter of the week for Sept. 13-19.
OCU had two other all-SAC performers – Vicky Murphy, a junior right-side hitter from Spring, Texas, and Raissa Santos, a junior outside hitter from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Murphy posted 2.13 kills a set, while Santos had 2.22 kills, 3.46 digs and 0.24 blocks a set.
Samantha Ball, a junior from Edmond, Okla., has averaged a team-high 6.82 assists a set, while Danielle Robison, a freshman from Dallas, has added 6.49 assists and a team-high 0.30 aces a set. Victoria Cross, a junior from Oklahoma City, leads the Stars with 3.96 digs a set. Cross has become the team's NAIA Champion of Character award winner.
Friends defeated Bethel (Kan.) 25-17, 25-21, 25-13 on Saturday to pick up the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament title. Friends (32-8) fell to OCU 25-16, 25-21, 25-16 on Sept. 17 in the Oklahoma Baptist Invitational in Shawnee, Okla.
Addie Jo Petersen leads Friends with 9.91 assists a set, while Courtney McCune has averaged a team-high 3.55 kills a set.
