Tuesday, October 21, 2014
PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico volleyball decided to have a block party Tuesday night in Greyhounds Arena. They recorded 15 blocks, tied for 10th most in a match since 2001, in a 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-14, 25-16) victory over Cameron while the visitors could only must four rejections. Both seniors
Agatha Gibbons and
Bree Anna Lucero had seven blocks apiece with three of Gibbons' rejections being solos.
ENMU improves to 10-12 and 4-8 in the Lone Star Conference while the Aggies fall to 10-11 overall and 3-9 in conference play. For the Zias, it is the first time since 2010 and only the second time in 10 years they have reached double-digit victories.
Through the first 20 points of the first set, the score was tied nine times while the lead changed hands on six occurrences. A 6-3 run by Eastern, during which Lucero had two kills, gave them enough breathing room to eventually take the set 25-20. The Zias hit .342 with 18 kills while holding CU to nine kills and a .188 attack percentage.
A service ace by sophomore
Courtney Lawson put ENMU up 8-5 in set two. The Aggies came back to knot the score 9-9. The Zias responded by taking six of the next seven points to take a five-point advantage.
CU came back again to tie the set at 16-16. A kill from sophomore
Lauren Frye capped off a 5-2 burst for Eastern. During the run, freshman
Brooklyn Biel recorded three of her season-high tying nine kills in the match.
The Aggies won the second set as they finished on a 7-1 run with the lone ENMU point coming on a kill from senior
Lindsey Barron.
Trailing 10-9 in the third, the Zias got two kills apiece from Frye and Gibbons to help them score seven consecutive points and take the lead for good. Senior
Karra Day finished off the set by recording three straight service aces.
Set four was again close early on until ENMU went on a 6-0 run to go up 15-10 on their way to taking the game by nine.
The Zias recorded 11 of their blocks over the final two sets. They also held CU to a .000 hitting percentage with a combined 15 kills. ENMU hit .238 and had 25 kills during that time.
Frye had a match-high 15 kills along with a .296 attack percentage. Gibbons contributed 11 kills and a .435 hitting percentage while Lucero's .562 attack percentage and 10 kills were a new career and season high, respectively. Nearly recording a double-double of nine kills and 14 digs was Lawson.
Senior
Kennedi Catano was credited with 30 assists, a new season-high. Day added 24 assists as well.
Defensively, freshman
Andrea Aguilar posted a match-high 17 digs and sophomore Lindsey Bost contributed with 13 digs of her own. Biel (3) and Frye (5) both matched their season-highs in blocks.
ENMU out hit the Aggies .279 to .109 and had a 59-37 kill and 11-2 service aces advantage. The service ace total is tied for the ninth most in a match since 2001 and the highest recorded by Eastern since Oct. 12, 2013 when they had also had 11 against Texas A&M-Commerce at home. The Zias did give CU 12 easy points on service errors.
Stepping out of LSC play this weekend, Eastern travels to Odessa, Texas to face Dallas Baptist and Texas-Permian Basin in a doubleheader on Saturday. First up will be the Patriots at 1 p.m. MT with the match against the Falcons to follow immediately afterwards.
For the latest information on Zia volleyball, follow
@ENMUSports on Twitter and visit the official website of ENMU athletics at GoEasternAthletics.com.
