The Lady Rams marked their final home game of the season on Saturday with a 3-1 win over St. Gregory’s University.

The win on Senior Night puts the team in third place in the Sooner Athletic Conference before heading to their last conference match, which is Saturday against Wayland Baptist University in Plainview.

The team is also ranked 13th in the nation and heading toward the conference tournament, which begins Nov. 8, when they will again play Wayland. The tournament ends Nov. 12.

“We have solidified third going into the tournament and we play our last conference game on Saturday,” said assistant coach Alex Hendee. “That game (against Wayland) does not really matter. We have distinguished ourselves enough that we are in third and the following Tuesday we play our first round of playoffs.”

She said the team is playing at a very good level.

“We feel good going into playoffs,” Hendee said.  “Our offense is really balanced and we are excited about how we are doing as a team. Our thing is ‘always rising.’ That is what (head) coach (Kimberly) Weaver declared for our team last year, so our goal is to keep rising as we finished.”

Hendee, a former Lady Ram, is looking forward to the upcoming games.

“I was a senior two seasons ago, so it’s easy for me to relate to, but I just hope they can play their best game,” Hendee said.  “It’s their last hoorah and you want them to go out with a bang. Our conference is competitive all around, everyone is kind of a threat. We are taking it one game at a time, because everyone is talented.”

Morgan Reese, a senior liberal studies major, said the team is looking forward to going on to the NAIA National Tournament, which will be Nov. 29 to Dec. 3 in Sioux City, Iowa.

“Right now we are in third and the conference game tournament comes around next Tuesday,” Reese said. “We should beat the team and go to next round and hopefully take out Oklahoma to go to nationals in Iowa.”

Reese said the players are working on playing as a team.

“We are really passionate about volleyball,” she said. “I just hope we end the season in a positive way, so say that we possibly do lose at least we play our hearts out.”

Junior mass communications major Chalon Anderson said the team wants to avenge an earlier loss to Wayland.

“We lost to Wayland in the beginning,” she said. “It was a tough loss and we are ready to show them what we got and the end the season for playoffs. We want to win on the eighth and go back to Wayland for the win in the first round. I want to see how far we can go with the team we have now.”

Anderson said the team’s strategy for the upcoming games is to “keep on defending and keep our offense fast like we have been.”

“When we run a fast offense, it is very hard to beat us a team,” she said. “At the end of the day we want a chance to compete in Iowa. That’s all we are focused on, one game at a time.”

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