SEWARD, Neb. – The Oklahoma City volleyball team dropped its last two matches of the Bulldog Bash to a pair of top 25 opponents in #17 College of Saint Mary and #4 Concordia.
College of Saint Mary 3, Oklahoma City 0
Set 1: 17-25
Set 2: 21-25
Set 3: 22-25
STAT OF THE GAME: Freshman
Grace Smallwood impressed in her second career game notching a double-double with a game-high 14 kills and 12 digs.
THE RUNDOWN – College of Saint Mary used eight unanswered points to take a 12-4 lead early on in the first set. Oklahoma City strung together three in a row right after the Flames run behind kills from
Maddie Edwards and
Grace Smallwood helping trim the CSM lead to five. Through the rest of the opening set OCU was unable to overcome the five-point deficit falling 25-17.
In a tight contest halfway through the second set Oklahoma City scored three unanswered to tie it at 11 behind kills from Edwards and
Bailey Lowder. Trailing 18-17, Oklahoma City saw the Flames take control, scoring the next five of six opportunities helping Saint Mary on to win the second set 25-21.
Down 8-6 in the third set, Oklahoma City caught fire by going off on a 9-2 run to take its largest lead of the of the match as Smallwood collected three kills during that stretch while OCU delivered three aces, two by
Natalie Adams and one from
Kaitlyn Dunlap. The tables turned right around for College of Saint Mary as the Flames lit up for an 11-1 run to take a 21-16 lead. With the Flames one point away from taking the match, Oklahoma City was able to keep themselves alive with three straight points taking advantage of two attack errors on top of a kill by Adams. Miranda Ring finished things off with a match-clinching kill to sweep the Stars with a third set victory of 25-22.
NOTES
- Oklahoma City fell just two kills shy of the Flames with 36 on the day along with a .170 ATT%.
- Oklahoma City led with 46 digs and came up one assist short of CSM with 36.
- The Stars collected just 3.0 total blocks which happened just once in 2023 season.
- OCU matched its season-best of five aces combining for the most service aces in its first two games since 2022.
- Freshman Grace Smallwood impressed with a game-high 14 kills while earning a double-double after gaining 12 digs.
- Just as she did 11 times a season ago, Natalie Adams amassed 30+ assists with a game-high 31 while matching Friday's number of two aces.
- Kaitlyn Dunlap joined Smallwood with double-digit digs with a game-high 19.
#4 Concordia 3, Oklahoma City 0
Set 1: 18-25
Set 2: 19-25
Set 3: 20-25
STAT OF THE GAME: Natalie Adams finished with a game-high 24 assists while adding seven digs and three kills. For Adams, it was her 27
th time in her 30-game career where she has tallied 20 more assists in a match.
THE RUNDOWN – Oklahoma City failed to take any sort of lead in the opening set against Concordia as the Bulldogs made a big push midway through with an 8-2 run that allowed the home squad to take an 18-9 lead. The Stars were able to rattle off three straight points late in the set with contributions from a pair of freshmen with
Erin Mack adding a kill and
Grace Smallwood delivering an ace. Kya Scott of Concordia put a stop to the Stars run with a kill to complete a 25-18 win.
Oklahoma City grabbed its first lead on five consecutive points scored early in the second set from freshman
Bailey Lowder and another kill by Smallwood.
Riley Winkler was able to deliver an ace to cap off the run giving OCU a 6-4 lead. Concordia made its way back and took the lead once and for all on five straight points of their own going up by as much as seven before closing out the second set 25-19.
Concordia leaped out to a 3-0 lead and never looked back in the third set never allowing Oklahoma City to go out in front leading by as much as 10 in the final set. Trailing 21-11, the Stars refused to lie down by taking off on an 8-2 run behind two kills from
Rylee Steward along with Edwards and Adams pitching in. OCU's take off to make a 23-19 game was put to a halt as Concordia was able to pull off the sweep with a 25-20 victory.
NOTES
- Oklahoma City matched its highest weekend total of 5.0 total blocks set on Friday against Hastings College.
- OCU begins its season 0-3 for the first time in the NAIA era (2006-present).
- For the second time in three games Grace Smallwood at least tied for the team-high in kills with eight while notching eight digs and one ace.
- Rylee Steward matched Smallwood with eight kills on a .192 hitting percentage while managing to claim a season-high 4.0 total blocks which also tied a game-high.
- OCU had two players with double-digit digs as Jaiden Downey tallied a season-best 11 digs along with Kaitlyn Dunlap digging 10.
- Saturday's match was the second time the two schools have squared off and the first since 2021 as Concordia takes a 2-0 series lead over the Stars.
COMING UP: It will be another weekend with three games in two days for the Stars as Oklahoma City heads to San Antonio for the Volleyesta Tournament starting Friday, Aug. 23 with a matchup against #3 Eastern Oregon and Our Lady of the Lake before one game on Saturday, Aug. 24 against University of the Cumberlands (Ky.).
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