FORT WORTH, TX – Texas Wesleyan Volleyball (8-6, 4-2 SAC) lost to No. 24 Oklahoma City (12-1, 6-0 SAC) Saturday afternoon at the Sid Richardson Center in straight sets, but by no means was it a rout. The Lady Rams dropped three-straight heartbreakers, 25-22, 25-21 and 25-23.
 
The third set was especially gut-wrenching when, tied at 23, TXWES appeared to have scored a point on a cross-court spike that went wide, but officials reversed the call giving the point to the Stars. OCU closed the match out on the next play.
 
The Lady Rams were incredibly balanced, attacking the Stars from all different directions. Sydney Charlton had seven kills, along with Brittni Mohle's six (and .208 hitting percentage), Veronika Webb's six and Chastiny Brown's six.
 
Texas Wesleyan tied its season high in blocks with 11 led by Webb's four. Madison Lopez was brilliant defensively, with 23 digs.
 
All three sets played differently: Set 1 was the nail-biter, Set 2 was the comeback and Set 3 featured the turning point.
 
In the first set, the Stars could never pull away. Throughout the game, OCU protected a two-point lead: 4-2, 5-3, 6-4, 9-7, 11-9, 14-12 and 17-15. Every time the Stars got up two, Texas Wesleyan countered, signaling to the Sooner Athletic Conference's lone unbeaten that the Lady Rams were fully invested in protecting their home court.
 
But even when TXWES pushed back, like when the Rams took a 12-11 advantage, OCU was relentless. Eventually, two critical attacking errors down the stretch helped expand the Stars lead to four, pulling ahead. Still, the Lady Rams cut the deficit to two in the waning moments – 21-19, 23-21 and 24-22 – but couldn't find a way to overcome the onslaught.
 
Set 2 showed Texas Wesleyan 's resiliency. Down 18-13, Rams Head Coach Jessica Ransom called for time and huddled the whole team together. Her passionate speech helped fuel the squad to score seven of the next eight points, tying the game on a Brown kill and taking the lead, 20-19, on an attacking error. Then Lacy Beeler happened.
 
The Stars top hitter this season had struggled much of the day with a negative hitting percentage and a hurt right hand after she severely jammed a finger on her off-hand, suffered defending the Rams front line. But she shook it off at the end of the second, turning in two service aces – and a block just before that – to steal another set away by the smallest of margins.
 
In the third set, the Lady Rams rushed out to a 17-12 lead before the Stars went on a 10-1 run. Still TXWES fought back to tie the set at 22, but Beeler's thunderous kill silenced the home crowd. Beeler earned the last three kills of the match for the Stars.
 
TXWES will go on the road next weekend to face Wayland Baptist (Friday) and Oklahoma Panhandle State (Saturday) before returning home to face University of Science and Arts-Oklahoma (Friday) and Mid-America Christian (Saturday).