OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma City volleyball team returns to action in its home building for the first time this season hosting Wayland Baptist on Friday night and Oklahoma Panhandle State on Saturday afternoon.

Friday, September 13
7 p.m. – Oklahoma City (1-7, 1-1 SAC) vs Wayland Baptist (3-3, 3-0 SAC)
Location: Oklahoma City | Abe Lemons Arena

Saturday, September 14
1 p.m. – Oklahoma City (1-7, 1-1 SAC) vs Oklahoma Panhandle State (4-7, 2-1 SAC)
Location: Oklahoma City | Abe Lemons Arena

STARS OUTLOOK
Oklahoma City picks up play inside Abe Lemons Arena for the first time this year where the Stars will be looking to improve its home-opener win streak to 19. Oklahoma City holds a 1-7 record after opening their season in the Bulldog Bash facing two of three top 25 teams without its top player Ruby Kelley. From there, Oklahoma City picked up play in the Volleyesta Tournament in San Antonio where they went 0-3 dropping all three matches in four sets which included taking on #3 Eastern Oregon. After starting 0-6 for the first time in the NAIA Era (2006-present), OCU go its first win in the conference opener on Friday against College of the Ozarks in four sets before falling to John Brown on Saturday in four. Oklahoma City has relied heavily on its youth thus far as four freshman have played 20 or more sets already. 

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Ruby Kelley
Seeing her first bit of action last week Kelley did not miss a beat tabbing a double-double on Friday against College of the Ozarks with 14 kills and 13 digs while having eight total blocks. Her kills and blocks both stood as game-high's. On Saturday, Kelley posted her second straight double-double with 13 kills and a season-high 18 digs. Saturday';s double-double was her 24th of her career.

Natalie Adams
The Stars sophomore came away with a game-high 26 assists on Friday making it the 29th time in Adams career she has gone over 20 assists in a single match. Adams also tallied a season-high 15 digs to complete her double-double performance which is the first time she has went for double-digit digs this season. Against JBU she delivered her second straight double-double as she did so on Friday night against College of the Ozarks. Adams went for 18 assists being the seventh time in eight games she has gone for double-digits while putting up double-digit digs for the second time this season with 10. Adams is currently sixth in the Sooner Athletic Conference with 164 assists.

Kaitlyn Dunlap
Dunlap made history on Friday night by entering the 1000 dig club at OCU after tabbing a team-high 22 digs on the night. Dunlap sits second on the team with 93 digs on a .906 Rec%. Dunlap has posted double-digit digs in five of the eights games played while seeing action in three sets or more in seven of the eight. 

Grace Smallwood
This Stars freshman has done nothing short of impress in her short time here as Smallwood leads the team with 71 kills and 100 digs. Smallwood set back-to-back season-highs with 18 digs in both games last weekend while grasping a season-high of 14 kills in games against College of Saint Mary and #3 Eastern Oregon. 

SCOUTING THE PIONEERS...
Wayland Baptist enters with a .500 record of 3-3 with undefeated 3-0 start to conference play.  Wayland began its season in the Park Invitational where it was unable to pick up a win over #8 Park University, Cornerstone and Saint Ambrose. The Pioneers are off to a strong start in Sooner Athletic Conference play earning back-to-back sweeps over Central Christian and Langston last weekend before taking down Oklahoma Panhandle State on Tuesday in five sets. 

The Pioneers have two players with 60 plus kills which includes Fade Ogunbade (66) and Selma Sutaj (60). Ogunbade comes in with double-digit kills in four of the six games played while setting a season-high of 14 in the season-opener against Park. For Sutaj, she started out her first three games of the season with no more than nine kills in any of the matches played. Since then, over the next three games Sutaj has went for double-digit kills in each competition setting a season-high of 13 against Langston on Saturday.

Valentina Bozzato leads all of the conference with 202 assists while no other Pioneers has more than nine on the year. Bozzato has had only two games going under 30 assists this season while setting a massive season-high on Tuesday with 55 assists and 20 digs against OPSU.

SCOUTING THE AGGIES...
Panhandle comes to Oklahoma City with a 4-7 record on the year having 11 games under their belt. After going 0-4 in the Labor Classic the Aggies turned things around with two wins to open conference play over Langston and Central Christian before falling to Wayland Baptist on Tuesday in five sets.

Ava Newby leads the Aggies with 102 kills as she posted her season-best of 17 kills against Calvary University on Aug. 20. OPSU has fed off its top two passers in Mia Sanchez and Nyah Ulmer who both have 140 assists or more average four or more assists per set. Sanchez leads with 174 despite having four matches where she posted single-digit assist numbers. Her season-high was set against Calvary as the Aggies junior from Edmond posted 42 total assists in four sets. Ulmer has gone for a total of 142 assists on the year reaching a season-best of 30 last Saturday against Central Christian. 

SERIES HISTORY
Oklahoma City holds a 24-16 record over Wayland Baptist dating back to 2006 as the two schools split the season series last year. Oklahoma City won on the road in Plainview on Sept. 7 last season in four sets as Ruby Kelley, Rylee Steward and Michela De Stefano all went for double-digit kills while Natalie Adams set a career-high that still stands with 49 assists. In the second meeting which came on Oct. 7 inside Abe Lemons Arena it was Wayland Baptist who stole the match in five sets as Steward and Kelley both tallied 16 kills while Adams went for 45 assists, her second-highest total of her career.

OCU holds a 14-2 record over Oklahoma Panhandle State as Oklahoma City swept the season series a year ago with a 3-0 sweep in Goodwell before taking match in four sets at home. Despite not having an attacker go for double-digit kills, OCU was able to put away the Aggies in three behind a five aces from Kaitlyn Dunlap and a 33 assist games by Adams. In the home arena, OCU grabbed a four set victory as Emma Nickerson set her second-highest total of her career with 13 kills while Adams went off for 45 assists. 

FOLLOW THE STARS
Find all news, scores, highlights and updates on ocusports.com, Twitter (@ocustars), Instagram (@ocustars), Facebook (Oklahoma City University Stars) and Youtube (@ocustars). Catch every OCU home game and select away games on the SAC Sports Network.