Lubbock, Tex.---The Wayland Baptist volleyball team entered Tuesday night's match against Lubbock Christian all alone in second place in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings with a 10-3 record. After a three-set sweep by the #23 Lady Chaps (25-19, 26-24, 25-21), the Pioneers found themselves in a three-way tie for second and at the bottom of the tie-breaker pool. So instead of a first round bye, the WBU women will open the tournament at 10 a.m. Thursday in Oklahoma City against the fifth seed, Oklahoma Baptist.

All of the sets against the Lady Chaps were tightly contested, but late runs by the home team proved to be the difference each time.

Nerves seemed to get the better of the Pioneers early in the first set as LCU jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to some costly WBU errors. Back-to-back kills by freshman Kimberli Harger seemed to settle Coach Jim Giacomazzi's squad down, however. Trailing 6-2, Wayland scored eight of the next nine points to take a 10-7 lead.

The Lady Chaps came back to tie it at 10, and then went on a 5-0 run to go up 16-12. The Pioneers rallied again on two Harger kills and a put down by Audrey Hemminger that eventually tied the score at 18, but LCU scored seven of the final eight to take the opener.

The Pioneers were on top 24-21 on successful attacks by senior Hailey Clark and Harger in the second set, but LCU once again stormed back with five straight, helped out by three WBU errors, to pull out the victory.

In the third and deciding set, the Pioneers lost an early 4-2 lead and never regained the advantage. After falling behind 21-15, the Wayland women scored four of the next five to get within three, but the home team came out of a timeout with two straight kills to capture the match.

The statistical breakdown of the match looks nearly identical except in one category. The Lady Chaps nailed down 48 of their 144 attack attempts, while Wayland could convert just 38 of their 144 attempts into points. Harger led the Pioneers with 10 kills, 13 digs and three blocks.

Anika Voigt dished out 32 assists and had a team-high 20 digs, while Desiree Luevano recorded nine kills and 13 digs. Jennifer Wyatt added eight kills and three blocks.

LCU finishes the regular season 31-3 overall and 13-1 in the SAC. The Lady Chaps are the top-seed in this weekend's tournament and will take on the winner of the WBU/OBU match at 4 p.m. on Thursday. Host Oklahoma City, the third seed, will play sixth-seeded Southern Nazarene at 1 p.m. on Thursday and the winner of that game will take on #2-seed John Brown at 7 p.m. The championship match is set for 6 p.m. Friday.

The Pioneers drop to 23-7 on the year and 10-4 in conference play.