Saturday Volleyball Roundup

OU Falls To Texas

The University of Oklahoma volleyball team fell to No. 5 Texas on the road Saturday afternoon, 3-0. The Sooners dropped to 13-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12, while the Longhorns improved to 8-2 and 2-0.

Texas won each set by scores of 25-17, 25-21 and 25-19.

Longhorn outside hitter Bailey Webster led all players with 15 kills and hit .444 for the match. Sophomore outside hitter Kierra Holst (Coppell, Texas) tallied a match-best nine kills for Oklahoma. Seniors Sallie McLaurin (Midwest City, Okla.) and Keila Rodriguez (Gurabo, Puerto Rico) each posted eight.

Despite hitting .400, McLaurin was held to single-digit kills for just the third time this season.

For the match, Texas outhit Oklahoma, .319-.174.

Sarah Palmer led the Texas defense with a match-high 18 digs. Sophomore libero Taylor Migliazzo (Kansas City, Mo.) led the Sooners with 13.

At setter, Hannah Allison dished out 43 assists, while sophomore Julia Doyle (Plymouth, Minn.) recorded a team-best 15 for Oklahoma followed by junior Kaitlyn Drawe (Lee's Summit, Mo.) with eight.

OU is now 1-1 on the season against ranked opponents. Earlier this season, Oklahoma defeated No. 25 BYU at the PSU Tournament.

The Sooners return to action at home on Saturday, October 5 at 2:00 pm against Iowa State. Admission to this match will be free.

ORU Sweeps S.E. Louisiana

Oral Roberts University edged closer to a program milestone and improved to 4-0 in Southland Conference play with a 3-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday afternoon. Sara Pope and Luara Rosa led the Golden Eagles with 11 kills each in the win.

ORU (12-2, 4-0 SLC) took the victory by scores of 25-16, 25-23, and 25-21.

The win was the 199^th in the head coaching career of ORU's Sheera Sirola. Already the all-time wins leader in program history, Sirola gets her first crack at win number 200 on Thursday night in Tulsa.

Pope, Rosa and the Golden Eagles hit .194 as a club. Jovana Poljasevic added seven kills in the sweep.

Defensively, Bruna Silva paced ORU with 16 digs, and setter Laura Taylor guided the offensive attack with 32 assists.

All four of ORU's Southland Conference wins this season have come in sweeps.

SLU (6-10, 0-4 SLC) suffered their fourth straight setback to open SLC play. The Lions hit just .085 for the match. Landry Bullock and Tiffany Thomas paced the home team with seven kills each, and Morgan Todd had 17 digs to lead all players.

ORU pounced on the Lions early in the 1^st set, building a 19-9 lead on a Pope kill. The home team would whittle the lead down to 21-16 before ORU coasted to the win. A combined block by Pope and Poljasevic capped a 25-16 victory.

The Lady Lions took a 16-15 lead on an ORU attack error midway through the 2^nd set, and the underdogs looked poised to perhaps pull even. But Pope tied the set at 21-all with a kill, and the Jenks native clinched the set with another blast that gave ORU a 25-23 win.

ORU built an 8-2 lead to start the 3^rd set before SLU found another gear. The Lady Lions scored three straight points, punctuated by a Bullock kill, to tie the frame at 12-all. But ORU took the lead for good on a McKenna Qualls kill at 19-18, and a Taylor kill at match point gave ORU the 25-21 win.

With the win, the Golden Eagles are now 3-0 all-time against Southeastern Louisiana and 4-2 this season on the road.

ORU has also won 18 of their last 19 matches in the state of Louisiana.

The Golden Eagles will go for Sirola's 200^th victory on Thursday, October 3 in a matchup against Stephen F. Austin.