Saturday, October 25, 2014
ODESSA, TEXAS – The Eastern New Mexico volleyball team fell to Texas-Permian Basin 3-1 (25-29, 25-22, 14-25, 25-21) Saturday afternoon in their second match of a doubleheader. Senior
Agatha Gibbons pace the Zias with a career-high tying 14 kills and added a match-high eight blocks, three of them solo.
ENMU drops to 11-13 while the Falcons are now 11-13.
UTPB led the entire first set after winning the first five points. The Zias did manage to close the deficit to one twice with the last coming at 13-12 after a kill by Gibbons.
Set two began with Eastern going up 6-3 following a kill by sophomore
Lauren Frye. After a timeout by the Falcons, they came back to tie the score 8-8. ENMU responded with a 3-1 run that was capped off by a kill from freshman
Brooklyn Biel.
Taking the next four points was UTPB to go ahead by two. The Zias came back to tie the match at 14-14 but the Falcons went on a 3-1 burst to go up 17-15.
After an ENMU timeout, senior
Lindsey Barron recorded a kill to start a 5-3 run that eventually tied the game at 20. Unfortunately for the Zias, UTPB outscored them 5-2 to go up 2-0 in the match.
Set three was close early as the score was tied after eight points. Eastern then jumped out to a comfortable lead thanks to an 8-1 run in which sophomore
Courtney Lawson had two kills and both Frye and Gibbons teamed up for two blocks. The Zias posted 15 kills with a .478 attack percentage in the set while holding UTPB to only 6 kills and a .000 attack percentage.
Tied 9-9 in the fourth, the Falcons went on a 7-2 run to take the lead. ENMU fought back to tie the match as they responded with a 7-2 run of their own. During Eastern's scoring streak, Gibbons posted two solo blocks and Biel had a solo rejection of her own.
Consecutive attack errors by the Zias and a kill from Ariana Gallardo put UTPB ahead for good to take the set and match.
Frye was the only other Eastern player to have double-digit kills with 11. Barron added eight kills and senior
Bree Anna Lucero posted seven. Senior
Karra Day led the team with 22 assists while fellow senior
Kennedi Catano was credited with 20 assists and two kills.
A match-high 23 digs went to freshman
Andrea Aguilar and Lawson added 16 digs of her own. Biel set a new season-high with five blocks. Frye had four rejections as both she and Biel had a solo blocks each.
As a team, Eastern hit .129 with 49 kills, recorded 57 digs and had a 13-10 block advantage. The Falcons ended the match with 43 kills, a .107 attack percentage but had two ball handling errors to five committed by the Zias.
ENMU returns to the court on Monday when they make the trip down to Hobbs, New Mexico to face the University of the Southwest. The first serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Maddox Student Life Center.
For the latest information on Zia volleyball, follow
@ENMUSports on Twitter and visit the official website of ENMU athletics at GoEasternAthletics.com.