Friday, October 17, 2014
PORTALES, N.M. – Senior
Kennedi Catano recorded a team-high 27 assists Friday night to move into fourth place on Eastern New Mexico's career assists list as the team fell in five sets 21-25, 25-22, 25-20, 20-25, 7-15 to Texas A&M-Kingsville in Greyhound Arena. She currently has 2,394 career assist as she surpassed Stacey Estlund (1996-97), who finished her career with 2,393 assists.
The Zias drop to 9-12 and 3-8 in the Lone Star Conference while the Javelinas are now 13-7 and 5-4 in conference play.
Eastern took a 2-1 lead after a TAMUK attack error in the first set. The Javelinas responded with a 7-0 run that was ended on a rare kill from sophomore
Lindsay Bost. ENMU got as close as two three times with the last being 23-21 following an attack error by TAMUK.
Set two was close nearly the entire time as the teams combined for 12 ties and seven lead changes. Trailing 20-19, back-to-back kills by sophomore
Lauren Frye and another from sophomore
Courtney Lawson put the Zias up by two. Eastern went on to take three of the next five points as senior
Bree Anna Lucero capped off the set with an emphatic kill.
ENMU jumped out to a 4-0 lead and appeared in command of the third set. The Javelinas outscored the Zias 8-4 later in the set to tie the game 17-17. Eight of the final 10 points went for Eastern thanks to two attack errors and a service error by TAMUK while senior
Lindsey Barron posted two kills and senior
Agatha Gibbons and freshman
Brooklyn Biel had one apiece. Frye and Gibbons combined for a block to end the set and put the Zias ahead 2-1.
The fourth set began with ENMU taking an early lead but the Javelinas stormed back to go up 14-12. A kill by Barron followed by consecutive kills from Frye gave the advantage back to the Zias.
A 4-1 burst from TAMUK put them up for the rest of the set. Eastern got as close as 21-20 following a combined block by sophomore
Courtney Lawson and Lucero. After the Javelinas called timeout, they took the final four points to force a decisive fifth set.
TAMUK used the momentum from the end of set four to take the first four points of the final set. The Zias clawed back cut the deficit to 7-10 but the Javelinas recorded four kills and a block to end the match.
Barron led Eastern with 17 kills while Frye added 16 of her own. Contribute a season-high nine kills and .320 attack percentage was Biel. Lawson nearly recorded a double-double as she finished with nine kills and 13 digs. Senior
Karra Day was credited with 23 assists.
Defensively, freshman
Andrea Aguilar finished with 16 digs. Gibbons had a team-high five blocks including one solo rejections. Lucero added four blocks while Barron, Biel and Frye had two block assists apiece.
Pacing TAMUK was Kelsey Washing with a double-double of 23 kills and 15 digs. Ashley Bukowski posted a double-double as well with 17 kills and 10 digs. Setting them up with a match-high 53 assists was Casey Klobedans.
Brett Zaccardo had a match-best 30 digs and Krystal Faison reached double-digits as well with 12 digs. At the net, Stephanie Johns posted a match-high eight blocks with two of them solos.
Eastern finished the night with 61 kills and a .171 attack percentage but the Javelinas hit .235 with 66 kills and had a 13-9 block advantage.
The Zias finish their four-match homestand Tuesday at 7 p.m. against LSC foe Cameron.
For the latest information on Zia volleyball, follow
@ENMUSports on Twitter and visit the official website of ENMU athletics at GoEasternAthletics.com.
