Bronchos Open Home Season Tuesday Against Oklahoma Baptist

No. 7 UCO Started Season 4-0 Last Week in Texas

EDMOND – No. 7-ranked Central Oklahoma makes its home debut Tuesday when the Bronchos host intrastate rival Oklahoma Baptist in a 6 p.m. contest at Hamilton Field House.

UCO opened the season last week with four straight sweeps at the Patriot Classic in Tyler, Texas. Three of those wins came over returning NCAA Division II national tournament teams, including an upset of No. 5 Ferris State.

The Bison went 3-1 at the BritKare Lady Buff Classic in Canyon, Texas, with the lone defeat coming to No. 8 West Texas A&M.

"OBU has a strong team and we're going to have to play really well," said 13th-year head coach Edgar Miraku, who became the winningest coach in program history last week and is now 306-93. "It's always good to be on your home court and we're looking forward to playing in front of our fans.

"I was happy with how we performed last week. We had some girls out, but others stepped up when we needed them to."

The Bronchos were 12-1 at home last season and are 133-30 at Hamilton under Miraku.

ABOUT THE BRONCHOS: UCO was without injured starters Sydney Huck and Lari Migliorino last week and lost another in the third match when Sawyer Franz went out, but still managed to go unbeaten.

The Bronchos were led by a pair of newcomers – senior transfer Kedron Burk and freshman Kamryn Glover – along with senior veterans Mikiah Perdue and Lindsey Houran.

Burk knocked down a team-high 43 kills in the four matches, averaging 3.58 per set while hitting .288 and added five solo blocks. Glover had 39 kills (3.25/set) along with 29 digs and four service aces.

Perdue hit .325 with 35 kills (2.92/set) and also had a team-high nine blocks (eight solo, one assisted). Houran directed the offensive attack with 143 assists (11.92/set) and also did a little bit of everything else with 54 digs, 14 kills and five aces.

Houran moved into fourth place on UCO's career assists list with 4,035. She needs 408 more for third.

Junior Kaitlyn Parrott paced Central's back-row defensive efforts with 89 digs, averaging 7.42 per set. Junior Riley Roberts added 41 digs (3.42/set).

ABOUT OKLAHOMA BAPTIST: The Bison have 13 players back from last year's 16-13 team.

Rylee Unruh led OBU last week with 37 kills (2.64/set), 32 digs and seven aces. Allie Stricker added 32 kills (2.29/set) and Lauren Safrit had 27 kills (2.08/set) with six blocks.

UCO owns an 8-5 lead in the series and has won the last four meetings between the two.

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Players Mentioned

#6 Sawyer Franz: OH; 5' 8"; Junior

#1 Lindsey Houran: S; 5' 8"; Senior

#14 Sydney Huck: OH; 5' 10"; Senior

#10 Lari Migliorino: MB; 6' 0"; Senior

#9 Kaitlyn Parrott: DS/L; 5' 5"; Junior

#15 Mikiah Perdue: MB; 5' 9"; Senior

#11 Riley Roberts: S; 5' 10"; Junior

#3 Kedron Burk: MB; 6' 2"; Senior

#7 Kamryn Glover: OH/RS; 6' 1"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#6 Sawyer Franz
: 5' 8"; Junior
: OH

#1 Lindsey Houran
: 5' 8"; Senior
: S

#14 Sydney Huck
: 5' 10"; Senior
: OH

#10 Lari Migliorino
: 6' 0"; Senior
: MB

#9 Kaitlyn Parrott
: 5' 5"; Junior
: DS/L

#15 Mikiah Perdue
: 5' 9"; Senior
: MB

#11 Riley Roberts
: 5' 10"; Junior
: S

#3 Kedron Burk
: 6' 2"; Senior
: MB

#7 Kamryn Glover
: 6' 1"; Freshman
: OH/RS