SILOAM SPRINGS -- Despite owning the advantage in hitting, passing and defense, the Golden Eagles struggled at the service line, allowing the visiting Stars to take advantage of free points, leading to No. 19 Oklahoma City's 3-1 (20-25, 25-17, 23-25, 23-25) victory over the John Brown University volleyball team on Wednesday (Sept. 8) evening inside Bill George Arena.
John Brown (5-7, 2-2 Sooner Athletic) kept the usual high octane offense of Oklahoma City to a pedestrian .106 (40-24-151) in the contest, including a -.100 second set that saw JBU tie the match at one apiece. City hit nearly .100 lower tonight than its season average.
A third set that saw 12 ties and seven lead changes featured a 21-21 deadlock down the stretch. Three consecutive points from the Stars (3-4, 2-1) were too much to overcome despite the hosts pulling back to within one, 24-23.
With the momentum of taking the advantage into the fourth game, the visitors barely hung on when the Golden Eagles mounted its final comeback push. Down 23-18, an Ellie Lampton kill ignited a 5-0 run that was capped by consecutive terminations from freshman Callie Mullins. City took the next point and, on yet another controversial call, the Stars wrapped up the contest on another Mullins attempt at the net that went awry.
While both teams hit poorly in the fourth set, the Golden Eagles hit .201 (57-25-159) in the contest, led by freshmen Delaney Barnes and Callie Mullins, as the duo each contributed a team-best 11 terminations. Barnes hit .409 (11-2-22) on the night, while sophomore Micah Fouts added eight kills, at a .467 (8-1-15) clip off the bench. Sophomore Savanna Riney also notched 10 kills, and added six digs and a solo block on defense.
Junior Morgan Fincham passed out 24 assists, while junior Lauren Cloud added 22. Fincham booked another double-double, scooping 16 in the back row, second only to junior Jillian Blackman's 20 digs while patrolling the back line.
Freshman Taylor Golmen had a career defensive night, posting a pair of solo blocks and three more assists, helping John Brown to 9.0 team rejections, matching City's 9.0 output in the front-row effort.
It was at the service line, however, that the Stars were able to snatch the contest away from John Brown. The visitors launched nine aces, but committed just six errors. The Golden Eagles, meanwhile, boasted just four aces while committing 17 service errors – a season high. It was the fifth time this season JBU committed double-digit service errors.
"I'm proud of how hard we played tonight against a perennial powerhouse in Oklahoma City," head coach Ken Carver noted. "To be that close and not win is difficult, but there were a lot of good things that happened with our team tonight.
"Our defense played really well against a high-powered offense. We featured a very balanced offense, in particular Micah [Fouts] and Delaney [Barnes]. The one area that hurt us tonight was our serving – we committed far too many errors while trying to serve them deep. We ended up missing too many well beyond the end line. OCU is a team that is well-coached and knows how to win when things get tight or even when being outplayed."
Ella Lofton led OCU with 15 kills and finished off a double-double by adding 14 digs and two blocks. Sophia Salak rang up 35 assists, seven digs and two blocks. Dylan Sokolosky and Catelyn Vargas each served up three aces apiece to power the City effort at the service line.
John Brown will now travel to Kansas City, Mo. to take part in the Park (Mo.) Classic, hosted at the Breckon Sports Center. The Golden Eagles will take on Oklahoma Wesleyan on Friday (Sept. 10) afternoon before facing Brescia (Ky.) and host Park on Saturday.
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