The Ouachita Baptist volleyball dropped a pair of matches Friday, losing 3-0 to Nova Southeastern and 3-1 to Texas A&M-Commerce during the opening day of the Harding Volleyball Tournament at the Rhodes Field House.
In the opener against Nova Southeastern, the Lady Tigers (0-10) led 4-3 early, but the Sharks scored the next five points to grab an 8-4 advantage. Nova Southeastern went on to take the first game 25-18. Despite tying the second game at 2, the Sharks rolled to a 25-18 win.
The third game, Nova Southeastern raced out to a 4-1 lead after capitalizing on a ball handling error by Lauren Stuart. Ouachita Baptist trailed 11-8 after a kill by Raichel Settle. The Lady Tigers trailed to rally late, but it wasn’t enough as Nova Southeastern took the game, 25-21
Libby Merritt paced the Ouachita Baptist offense with nine kills, while Ryleigh Lay added eight. Stuart finished with a team-high 22 assists. Stephanie Carrell and Settle led the charge on defense with 12 and 10 digs, respectively.
The Lady Tigers lost the opening game to Texas A&M-Commerce, 25-18, but took the second game, 25-17. However, the Lady Lions were too much with scores of 25-17 and 25-17 to get the win.
Merritt led the Lady Tiger offense with 12 kills, while Settle had 11. Ouachita Baptist finished with 44 for the match. Lexie Hegi recorded a team-high 38 assists. Defensively, Settle had another double-double with 20 digs and Stuart added 15.
Ouachita Baptist concludes tournament play 5:00 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13 against Southwest Baptist.
