The 2009 volleyball season came to an end on Friday for the Wayland Baptist Pioneers, one game short of the championship game of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament. The Pioneers opened the tourney with a thrilling five-set win over Southern Nazarene University (24-26, 26-24, 27-25, 22-25, 15-7) but fell in the final match of the day to Lubbock Christian in three straight sets.

The WBU netters, who opened the season with a school record 11 consecutive victories, finish up the year with an overall record of 21-9.

Desiree Luevano led the Pioneers with 17 kills and 20 digs in the match against SNU.    Jennifer Wyatt knocked down 13, and Anika Voigt handed out 50 assists and 23 digs.

The defensive leader of the contest for the WBU women, though, was junior libero Staci Wilt who established a new school record with 36 digs.  The old mark of 35 was shared by Wilt's former teammates Bethany Lewis and Ashleah Richards, both of whom set the mark in 2007.

The score was close for most of the first set with SNU holding the advantage until late when the Pioneers, down 21-17, scored six straight, including two kills by Voigt and a service ace by Alissa Mitchell, to take a 24-21 lead.  The Storm responded with a 5-0 run that closed out the set.

The second set was even closer than the first with 11 ties.  Wayland had a 5-0 run midway through to take a 21-14 advantage, but SNU rallied back, scoring nine of the next 11 points to tie it at 23.  The Pioneers finally won the set on three Storm errors.

Trailing 10-9, SNU took over the third set with a 5-0 run.  WBU came back later in the set with a 7-1 run that turned a 21-15 deficit into a 22-22 tie.  With the Storm serving for set point, Voigt got a kill to knot it up again at 24, but an attack error gave SNU another chance at set point.  Two Luevano kills sandwiched between another by Voigt gave the Pioneers the win and the 2-1 match lead.

The fourth set was all Southern Naz, but in the fifth, Wayland broke open a 3-3 game with two straight kills by Wyatt that began a 12-4 run.  Luevano, who finally put an end to the Storm's season with a service ace, had four kills in the final set.

In the match against LCU, the Pioneers simply appeared to run out of gas.  The Lady Chaps came out swinging in the first set with a 9-1 run and led 12-4 before WBU scored ten of the next 14 points to cut the margin to 16-14.  That was as close as Wayland could get, as the hosts took the set, 25-17.

The middle set was much closer with six ties and three lead changes before LCU broke it open with a 13-4 run.  Like the first, the score of the second set was 25-17.

There were seven ties in the match's final set, the last of which was at 12.  The Lady Chaps took 13 of the next 18 points for another 25-17 win.

Wyatt was the only Pioneer to reach the double figure mark in kills with 13.  Wilt and Voigt had 15 digs each, and Mitchell recorded ten. 

LCU will now take on Oklahoma Baptist, which defeated Oklahoma City in three sets, on Saturday at 2 p.m. for the tournament championship and an automatic berth in the NAIA Volleyball Championship Opening Round Tournament.