THE LEAD
The Dallas Baptist Volleyball Team opened up Heartland Conference play sweeping the Oklahoma Panhandle State Aggies, 3-0. Sidnee Jo Fitzpatrick and Carly Hess would both have a match-high 10 kills, while Kaycie Bird registered a match-high 13 assists and Hanna Ballew notched a match-high 14 digs.   

After beginning set one with a 3-1 lead, the Lady Patriots allowed the Aggies to come from behind to take a 10-7 lead midway through the match.  Down by three points, DBU would begin their first of many runs scoring five straight points to take the lead, 12-10. With the Aggies crawling back to within one point to fall behind 12-11, the Lady Patriots exploded again to score ten of the next 13 points.  Behind a series of kills from Sidnee Jo Fitzpatrick and Carly Hess, DBU went up 22-14. The Lady Patriots would control the rest of the set and closed out the Aggies 25-18 to go up 1-0 in the match.

Set two would be a much more spirited, as both teams would trade leads early and neither team could stake a lead larger than two points.  With the squads tied 13-13, the Lady Patriots would begin to pull away slightly from the Aggies.  Bit by bit, DBU built up a four point lead over OPSU late into the set, going up 21-17.  The Aggies would still hang around though, climbing to within one point of DBU, 23-22.  The effort wouldn not be enough though, as DBU won the tightly contested second set 25-23, extending their match lead 2-0.

In the third set of the night, Dallas Baptist saw the best of Oklahoma Panhandle State, as the Aggies had their backs against the wall.  Exchanged leads and ties would be the theme of the set.  With the two teams tied at 24, kills by Tadam Mergener and Cassandra Freitag would turn the lights out on the Aggies, as the Lady Patriots won the set 26-24 and the match 3-0.

COACH'S QUOTE
"We had a lot of people in a lot of different positions and saw us work through some errors. The girls started to show competitive drive at the end, we just need to work on showing that at the beginning of matches." - Coach Cathy Kokel

INSIDE THE NUMBERS 
.348 Hitting percentage registered Carly Hess.
4      Number of service aces scored by Hannah Ballew
2      Number of players with double digit kills. (Hess/Fitzpatrick)
2      Number of players with double digit assists (Bird/Hannah Hester-12)

WHAT'S NEXT
DBU will have their home opener this Thursday, September 17, at The Burg Center versus the visiting St. Mary's Rattlers. The match is set for 7 pm.