Alva Review-Courier -

ALVA, Okla. – (HTML Box Score) Oklahoma Baptist opened up Great American Conference play with a 3-1 (25-19, 25-13, 21-25, 25-19) road win over Northwestern Oklahoma State Tuesday night.

The Lady Bison (4-5, 1-0 GAC) trailed 8-10 in the first set before the Rangers (5-5, 0-1 GAC) committed five consecutive errors to put OBU on top for good. After stretching the lead to as much as nine points, Sophia Couto ended a late Rangers run to give the Lady Bison a six-point victory.

Set two was a dominant wire-to-wire win that saw the Lady Bison hit .444 as a team and use bookend 5-0 runs to start and close out the frame. The lead reached double-digits four times on the way to a 12-point rout.

Northwestern forced a fourth set after never trailing in the third. In the final set of the night both teams used early runs to take brief leads, but the Lady Bison took the final lead of the night with an 8-2 run to give OBU a 17-12 advantage. The Rangers climbed within one point late in the fourth, but the Lady Bison slammed the door shut on the set by winning five straight points to secure the match.

Senior Cadyn Laing finished with a season-high 21 kills on a stellar .528 attack percentage. She added two solo blocks and two block assists in the winning effort. Hayden Blair paced the team with 33 assists and Mikayla Watson picked up her third straight double-double and fifth of the season with 12 kills and 16 digs on the night. Suzanny Figueiredo earned 24 digs and Couto was involved in six of the 10 blocks for the Lady Bison.

OBU will wrap up tournament play this weekend at the GAC/MIAA Crossover. The Lady Bison are scheduled for two matches Friday at Central Oklahoma in Edmond and two Saturday at Southern Nazarene in Bethany.