CHICKASHA, Okla. -- The John Brown University volleyball team ended a three-match skid and kicked off the 2021 Sooner Athletic campaign with a convincing 3-1 (25-20, 25-12, 23-25, 25-14) win over Science & Arts (Okla.) on Tuesday (Aug. 31) night at the Drover Fieldhouse.
Sophomore Delaney Barnes paced the Golden Eagles (4-5, 1-0 Sooner Athletic) with 12 kills and hit .423 on the evening. Sophomore Savanna Riney was the only other Golden Eagles in double-digit kill territory with 10, and added a trio of block-assists as JBU moved to 9-0 all-time against the Drovers.
The visitors were dominant from the service line, launching 17 aces, paced by junior Lauren Cloud, last week's SAC Setter of the Week. The pile of aces was the most by the Golden Eagles since its 15 against then-No. 22 Wayland Baptist (Texas) in 2014 when Shayna Daniels sent 10 perfectly from the service line.
Sophomore Michah Fouts, Riney and Barnes posted kills and a Barnes-Riney rejection broke open a 9-9 tie in the first set, launching JBU on a 7-0 run. Up 15-9, the squads traded points until Barnes terminated the ball twice to get John Brown a 1-0 lead in the match. The Golden Eagles hit an impressive .367 (16-5-30) in the set.
Before falling in a close third set, JBU recorded 12 of the final 16 points of the set to claim a lopsided second set, and a second-straight game over .300 attack efficiency.
JBU responded by opening the fourth set on a 6-1 run that quickly ballooned to a 15-5 lead. In a 5-0 run, Cloud served up a pair of aces and the 10-point lead stuck around until the Drovers (5-4, 0-2) pulled to within six, 16-10. Back-to-back Morgan Fincham aces helped end USAO's rally hopes, and returned the lead to 11, 22-11, before JBU ended the match on a quick 3-0 run.
John Brown outhit the Drovers in the contest, .276 to .147, and dominated in aces (17-4) and digs (64-51). Cloud passed out 25 assists, and Fincham added 17. Cloud led the team, and notched the double-double, with 17 digs, as junior Jillian Blackman scooped up 14 on the back line.
"It was good to get back into the win column and our conference season off to a winning start," head coach Ken Carver admitted. "USAO is an improved program and played really scrappy at times, which was especially evident in the third set when they overcame the large deficit we put them in to win that set. As a team, we're still learning how to consistently close out sets when we have those opportunities. To our players' credit, however, they came out with more focus and sense of urgency in the fourth set and was able to quickly extinguish the momentum USAO had worked hard to get back on their side.
"We finished the match serving very aggressively which ended up severely limiting USAO's ability to mount any consistent offense. All in all, a good night's performance for our team and an important first conference win. We'll look to build upon that when we face MACU tomorrow evening."
Lauren Collier finished the night with a match-best 14 terminations, but was limited to a reasonable .077 (14-11-39) efficiency thanks to the Golden Eagle front-line defense.
JBU will be back in action tomorrow (Sept. 1) at 6 p.m., when it takes on Mid-America Christian (Okla.) in the back end of its two-match stretch in Oklahoma City. Wednesday night's matchup inside the Gaulke Activity Center is scheduled to air live on the SAC Sports Network.
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