Tuesday, October 14, 2014
PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico volleyball fell just short of their upset bid of West Texas A&M Tuesday night in Greyhound Arena. The Lady Buffs took the match 3-1 (25-20, 19-25, 25-22, 25-23) but a five-point swing in favor of the Zias over the final two sets would have ended their Lone Star Conference winning streak at 31 matches.
ENMU sees their record drop to 8-11 overall and 3-7 in conference play while WT is now 19-3, 10-0 in the LSC and have now won 11 consecutive matches. The contest was the closest Eastern has come to defeating the Lady Buffs since their last win in 2004.
Kills by senior
Agatha Gibbons and sophomore
Courtney Lawson helped the Zias jump out to an early 3-1 lead in the first set. WT came back to tie the score at three but Gibbons put Eastern back in front with a kill on the next point.
Four straight points were won by the Lady Buffs to put them in the lead for good the rest of the set. ENMU did manage to cut the deficit to two four times and pulled to within one at 19-18 after a kill by freshman
Brooklyn Biel.
Sophomore
Lauren Frye had two kills and Lawson added another for the Zias to win the first three points of set two. A 7-1 run put WT back into the lead but ENMU responded by copying them and going firmly on top 11-8. The Zias held the Lady Buffs to a .074 attack percentage in the set with eight kills and six attack errors.
The third set seemed to be going in WT's favor early. Down 8-3, Eastern stormed back with a 12-4 run thanks to two kills apiece from Biel and Frye.
Eventually, the Zias stretched their lead to four following an attack error by the Lady Buffs. WT came back with an 8-2 stretch for a two-point advantage. A kill by Lawson and a Lady Buff attack error tied the set 22-22. Two kills from WT and a bad set by ENMU closed out the set in favor of the visitors.
All the momentum seemed to be with the Lady Buffs in the fourth through the first 14 points with them taking a six-point lead. The Zias stormed back to close the deficit to 12-11 following consecutive kills by Gibbons, but WT answered with a 6-1 burst.
ENMU came back to tie the match 19-19 with Lawson knotting the score on a kill. After two straight points for the Lady Buffs, the Zias took four of the next five to go up 23-22. Back-to-back kills followed by a block was all WT needed to dash Eastern's hope of an upset.
Lawson posted a match-high 13 kills with a .250 attack percentage and eight digs. Frye finished with 12 kills, all of them coming after the first set. Gibbons led the Zias with a .318 attack percentage and four blocks.
Senior
Kennedi Catano was credited with 22 assists and needs 55 more to move into third place on the school's career list. Fellow classmate
Karra Day added 14 assists while setting a career-high with four service aces.
Eastern outblocked WT 9-5 as senior
Bree Anna Lucero and Biel had three apiece. Senior
Lindsey Barron, Frye and Gibbons all recorded a solo block apiece.
Kameryn Hayes recorded a double-double of 12 kills and 21 assists and Jessica Johnson matched her with a team-best 12 kills. Lexi Davis contributed 11 kills and four blocks while Lauren Bevan had nine kills and four blocks as well. A match-high 24 assists were credited to Kyli Shculz. The Lady Buffs hit .203 as a team, their lowest in a win and third worst this season.
Eastern is back in action Wednesday night in Greyhound Arena when they step out of conference play to host Texas-Permian Basin at 7 p.m.
For the latest information on Zia volleyball, follow
@ENMUSports on Twitter and visit the official website of ENMU athletics at GoEasternAthletics.com.
