HUTCHINSON – Kansas Wesleyan and Oklahoma Wesleyan, the co-champions of the Kansas Conference in women’s volleyball, squared off in Saturday’s KCAC Championship match with OKWU coming away with the four-set win at the Sports Arena.

Both teams will represent the KCAC in next week’s NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship Opening Round. Opening Round hosts and pairings will be announced on Monday in a Selection Show broadcast by the NAIA on the Association’s YouTube Channel.

Things did not go the way of the Coyote in the first set as Oklahoma Wesleyan won 25-9.

It went decidedly better in the second set, as the Coyotes rallied from a 15-14 deficit to take a 18-16 lead on Rylee Serpan’s kill, and was able to avoid danger the rest of the set, scoring the final three points to take the set 25-20.

OKWU raced out to an 8-2 lead in the third, and the Coyotes couldn’t recover. KWU got within three at 11-8, but a 7-1 Eagle run made it 18-9 on the way to the 25-14 win.

KWU led 18-17 in the fourth set, but OKWU scored the next six points to take a 23-18 lead. It was 24-19 OKWU when the Coyotes got two points to make it 24-21, but OKWU closed out the match with a point to win it 25-21.

Gianna Adriaanse had 16 kills to lead the Coyotes while Kylee Harris had 14. Josie Deckinger had 33 assists. Kelcey Hund had 12 digs and Kori Arnold added 10. KWU’s front row defense totaled 10 team blocks in the match, as Kyla Moore and Katie Crain had five each.