DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern Oklahoma State will look to complete the season sweep over Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday, Oct. 31, when the two sides meet in the Bloomer Sullivan Gym at 6 p.m.
STORM WATCH
Southeastern (10-12, 6-5) paused from Great American Conference play last time out to go to Edmond, Okla. to take on Oklahoma Christian. SE and OC went the distance in Monday night's contest, going five sets, but would fall short in the Payne Athletic Center 3-2 to the Eagles.
D'Nari Mills was one of three players to reach double-digit kills against Oklahoma Christian, recording a season-high 25, while
Noelia Rocha and
Faith Kruebbe saw 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Both Rocha and Kruebbe have eclipsed 100 kills this season, as Rocha is third on the team with 190, and Kruebbe ranks fifth with 107. Mills remains the conference leader in kills with 3.97 per set and ranks eighth across all Division II with 345 total kills.
Ruthie Forson dished out a season-high 50 assists in the defeat at Oklahoma Christian and is averaging 8.68 assists per set, which ranks sixth among the GAC. The Denton, Texas native leads the team with 755 assists and surpassed 200 kills in a season for the first time in her career on Monday night, recording 7 kills to reach 204 on the year.
Southeastern opened GAC play this season on the road at Oklahoma Baptist in the first matchup and would pick up its first win over the Bison since 2016. SE and OBU battle back and forth, and the Storm came out on top after five sets, 3-2. Mills led the attack with 21 kills, and
Patience Lewis had a career night with 42 digs.
Thursday's match will mark the 22nd meeting between SE and Oklahoma Baptist, with the Bison leading the all-time series 18-3. Since joining the GAC, the Storm have yet to record a home win against OBU and are just 1-10 at home since 2009. This season, Southeastern has been at its best in front of the home crowd, having compiled a 5-1 record in the Bloomer Sullivan Gym compared to its 2-7 road mark.
PREVIEWING OKLAHOMA BAPTIST
The Bison (13-10, 7-4) split a pair of GAC matches last time out, defeating Arkansas Tech 3-0 and falling to Harding at home 3-2. Heading into the HU match, Oklahoma Baptist had won six straight contests, which has shot them up to fourth in the standings after starting the season 1-3 in conference play. OBU holds a one-match advantage over the Storm in fourth place at 7-4.
Oklahoma Baptist sits in the top half of most of the attacking categories, as they rank fourth in kills (13.00 kps), assists (12.01 aps) and points (16.30 pps) and are fifth in hitting percentage (.197). Middle blocker Jill Leslie leads the Bison attack with 2.92 kills per set, which ranks 10
th among the GAC, and a .317 attack average, which is fourth best among the conference leaders.
Defensively, the Bison rank second in the GAC in digs with 18.30 per set and have totaled the most digs across the conference as a team with 1,610. Karsyn Hunter paces the efforts for OBU, averaging 4.00 digs per set, and leads the team with 352 digs. At the net, Oklahoma Baptist ranks eight in blocks, averaging 1.76 per set, led by Leslie and Avery Hellmuth with 66.0 and 56.0 total blocks, respectively.
