UCO Splits Two Home Matches

10/12/2013 5:59:00 PM

Katy Davis

UCO-OCU Box Score
UCO-LU Box Score

EDMOND (Oct. 12) – Juliette Smith led a balanced Central Oklahoma attack that overwhelmed outmanned Langston Saturday afternoon at Hamilton Field House as the Bronchos split a pair of non-conference matches.

UCO dropped a tough five-set decision to Oklahoma City in the first match of the day, falling 25-20, 25-22, 19-25, 16-25, 15-7, before coming back to throttle the Lions in a 25-8, 25-6, 25-13 sweep that took just 57 minutes.

The Bronchos improved to 13-5 with the LU victory, equaling their win total from last season. UCO hosts another state non-conference rival Tuesday, taking on Southeastern Oklahoma at 7 p.m.

"We were too inconsistent against OCU and that cost us," head coach Edgar Miraku said. "We did a great job coming back after losing the first two sets and it looked like we had all the momentum, but we were sluggish in the fifth set for whatever reason.

"I thought we did a nice job bouncing back against Langston. We went out and took care of business, which was good to see."

The Bronchos had no trouble disposing of the Lions, hitting .380 as a team with 35 kills and just eight errors in 71 attacks.

Smith paved the way, hitting a sizzling .778 with seven kills and no miscues in nine attacks while adding three blocks (two solo, one assisted). Barbara Jackson and Allison Barr had five kills apiece, with Bonnie Vernon chipping in four kills and three service aces.

UCO trailed only once in the match, that at 1-0 to open the first set. The Bronchos quickly responded and had scoring runs of 6-0 and 8-0 in opening up a 21-4 lead en route to taking early control of the match.

Central zipped to an 11-0 lead to start the second set before coasting to that win and then got out to a 5-1 lead in the third en route to closing it out.

The Bronchos were on the verge of being swept in the opener against OCU after dropping the first two sets before rallying.

Katy Davis had an ace and Tyler Gromann back-to-back kills as UCO jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the third set, with Jackson making three kills in a 6-0 run that had the Bronchos on top 14-6.

The lead was 21-11 on a Smith kill and the Bronchos turned back a mild OCU rally down the stretch to close out the set.

The Stars led 10-8 in the fourth set before Barr's slam at the net sparked a 12-1 scoring spurt that Gromann capped with consecutive kills to put the Bronchos in front 20-11. Aces by Mikayla Bangasser and Taylyn Schwartz enabled UCO to close out the set and tie the match.

The Bronchos couldn't complete the comeback, however, as OCU took a quick 8-3 lead and never let UCO get any momentum en route to a 15-7 victory.

Gromann led UCO with a career-high 14 kills, while Jackson ended with 12 and Barr eight. Smith collected seven blocks (one solo, six assisted) to go with five kills and Davis handed out 38 assists.

Tate Hardaker led the defense once again with 25 digs as she moved into second place on UCO's career digs list.

Print Friendly Version

Related Videos

Related Stories