The Lady Eagles will be playing Oklahoma City on Friday night in the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament.
JBU finished their regular season at fifth in the SAC with a conference record of 3-9. Their last regular season match resulted in a 3-0 loss against OCU.
Friday night’s rematch in Shawnee, Okla., will be the Lady Eagles only chance to advance to Saturday’s game against the conference’s top team; Oklahoma Baptist.
The last time JBU played the OCU Stars they were out-paced in kills, assists, digs and blocks even though JBU freshman Audrey Dearien had 12 kills, the second-most kills of the match though none of her teammates reached were able to commit more then four kills.
Freshman Libby Blasingame led JBU in blocks with two solo blocks and four block assists of the team’s nine.
Junior Staci Williamson and sophomore Libero Becca Young both had 11 digs to lead the Lady Eagle’s defense. This feat was overshadowed though by the Star’s Danielle Robinson, who left the court with 19 digs followed by teammate Hannah Mitcham with 11.
Mitcham led the court in assists as well with a total 33 to JBU’s leader, junior Kailey Bain, who had 17.
Part of the reason for Mitcham’s high number assists actually stems from the minimal amount contributed by her teammates. Of the Star’s 41 assists, only eight were not from Mitcham.
The winner of the JBU/OCU match will then go on to face the Lady Bison, who are undefeated in conference.
OBU’s leading offensive player is Kristin Pressley, who also leads the conference in kills. She averages 4.4 a set and has a total of 497 kills this season. Skyler Strahm who averages 2.9 kills a game follows her.
JBU’s leading offensive players are Dearien followed by senior Erin Didier, who has been suspended and will not be playing in the tournament.
Didier was also suspended when the Lady Eagles last faced OBU, but the team put in a very good showing resulting in JBU winning the first set of the night and performing well in the later three.
While OBU put up more kills and digs than JBU, the Lady Eagles did out-block their opponent with 7 to OBU’s 4.
The tournament will take place this weekend in Shawnee, Okla., on OBU’s campus with the first game starting at 1 p.m. on Friday.