Ottawa finished las week with a record of 3-0, defeating Graceland University (3-1), Central Christian College (3-0), and Kansas Wesleyan University (3-0). The Braves finished those matches with 116 kills, a .292 attacking percentage, 107 assists, 25 service aces, 92 digs, and 19 team blocks.
Akeil Williams and
Grant Younie earned GPAC Player of the Week honors last week. Younie was named GPAC Attacker of the Week. He had 39 kills, a .424 attacking percentage, 20 digs, and three blocks in three matches last week. Younie averaged 3.9 kills per set and 13 kills per match. Younie also averaged 6.6 digs per match and two digs per set. Williams was named GPAC Defensive Player of the Week. In three wins last week, he finished with 12 blocks and 16 digs. Williams averaged four blocks per match and 1.2 blocks per set. He also averaged 5.3 digs per match and 1.6 digs per set. Williams also set the school record for single match attacking percentage. He hit .882 (15-0-17) in a win over Kansas Wesleyan.
Max Baumann set a new school record for service aces in a single match in OU's 3-0 win over Central Christian with seven. As a team, OU finished with 14 service aces which are the third most in program history.
This season the Braves are averaging 10.2 kills per set, 9.7 assists per set, 2.2 blocks per set, 1.3 service aces per set, and 10.5 digs per set. They have a .156 attacking percentage.
Ottawa is ranked 40th in the NAIA in kills per set (10.2), 17th in errors (242), 14th in total attacks (1,219), 47th in attacking percentage (.156), 31st in assists (408), 39th in assists per set (9.7), 34th in service aces (56), 50th in service errors (106), 37th in service aces per set (1.33), 19th in receptions (774), 19th in reception errors (67), 13th in digs (441), 11th in digs per set (10.5), 17th in solo blocks (32), 12th in block assists (122), 10th in total blocks (93), 13th in blocks per set (2.2), 36th in blocking errors (8), 18th in ball handling errors (5), 29th in points (581), and 37th in points per set (13.8).
Akeil Williams leads the Braves in kills (3.00) per set. He is also the team's leader in blocks, averaging 1.4 per set.
Kade Zrna is OU's leader in assists (4.8) per set and
Max Baumann leads OU in digs (1.9) per set.
Thursday is the 17th match between Ottawa University and Morningside University. Ottawa lead the series, 10-6 but the Mustangs are on a two match winning streak. Morningside won both matches last season, defeating OU 3-1 in Sioux City, Iowa on Feb. 1 and 3-1 in Wilson Field House on Feb. 23. The Braves have a record of 4-4 against Morningside in Sioux City. OU's last road victory over the Mustangs was on Feb. 24, 2022. OU won the match 3-1; 25-18, 23-25, 25-15, 25-17. The first time the two teams played against each other was on Jan. 15, 2016 in Wilson Field House. It was the first match in program history for the Braves. MU won the match 3-2; 17-25, 24-26, 29-27, 25-22, 6-15.
Morningside University has an overall record of 6-6, a GPAC mark of 2-0, is on a two match winning streak, and has a record of 4-3 at home. The Mustangs enter Thursday's match coming off a 3-1 win on Feb. 23 over Kansas Wesleyan and a 3-0 win over Central Christian on Feb. 24.
The Mustangs are ranked 15th in the NAIA in kills (534), 27th in kills per set (11.3), 10th in errors (273), ninth in total attacks (1,393), 37th in attacking percentage (.187), 12th in assists (508), 25th in assists per set (10.8), 11th in service aces (75), 18th in service errors (176), 22nd in service aces per set (1.6), 14th in receptions (827), 30th in reception errors (55), seventh in digs (497), 10th in digs per set (10.5), 28th in solo blocks (21), ninth in block assists (129), 19th in total blocks (86), 32nd in blocks per set (1.8), 21s tin block errors (11), 31st in ball handling errors (3), 15th in points (694.5), and 24th in points per set (14.8).
Natan Alves leads Morningside in kills (3.7) per set, Jacob DePauw leads the team in assists (9.2) per set, Owen Anderson is the team's leader in digs (2.7) per set, and Tharen Cox is MU's leader in blocks (0.9) per set.
