DENTON, Texas – Central Oklahoma suffered a four-set loss to host Texas Woman's on the second day of the TWU Volleyfest Friday evening at Kitty Magee Arena.
The No. 15-ranked Bronchos rallied for a 26-24 first-set victory before the Pioneers answered with 25-19, 25-21, 25-17 wins in dropping UCO to 4-3 on the season.
Central finishes the three-day event Saturday against Westminster at 9:30 a.m. and Southern Arkansas at 3:30 p.m. The Bronchos make their home debut next week, hosting four matches in the Central Region Challenge Sept. 10-12 at Hamilton Field House.
"It was a tough day," head coach Edgar Miraku said. "We didn't play well enough to win. It's a process with so many new players and we just have to keep working hard at getting better every day."
Sophomore transfer Georgia Ahlert topped the team with 11 kills. Taylor Fenton, Myla Unterweger and Kate Wells netted eight kills apiece, with the rookie Wells adding seven total blocks (three solo, four assisted), while Brylee Moore had seven kills.
Riley Roberts handed out 35 assists to go with 14 digs. Kaitlyn Parrott also had 14 digs and Morgan Manning chipped in 10.
TWU jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the opening set before the Bronchos stemmed the tide with a Wells kill and solo block. UCO steadily got back in it and took its first lead at 13-12 on an Unterweger kill.
There were seven ties and four lead changes the rest of the way, with the final deadlock coming at 24-all. Fenton then pushed the Bronchos over the top with consecutive kills off Roberts' feeds to end it.
Wells had six kills and three blocks (two assisted, one solo) in the set, while Ahlert had four kills and Roberts 14 assists, two aces and two assisted blocks.
UCO fell behind early and never recovered in losing the second set and dropped a back-and-forth battle in the third.
The Bronchos led 9-5 after an Unterweger kill, but TWU ripped off five straight points to move back in front 10-9. It was tied at 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 before a four-point run put the Pioneers on top to stay.
UCO led only once in the fourth set, at 5-4 on a Jordyn Baker ace. TWU came back with a 5-1 run to go ahead 9-6 and steadily pulled away from there to close out the match.
