Friday, November 7, 2014
PORTALES, N.M. – Runs by Texas A&M-Commerce in each of the sets proved to be too much for Eastern New Mexico Friday night in Greyhound Arena. The Zias fell 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-22) to the Lions in front of 450 fans.
ENMU falls to 12-17 overall and 4-11 in the Lone Star Conference while A&M-C is now 7-21, 4-11 in conference play and have almost locked up the sixth seed in the LSC Tournament.
After seeing the Lions take the first three points of the match, the Zias responded with a 7-1 run that began with back-to-back kills from senior
Agatha Gibbons. A&M-C came back to take a 9-8 advantage until senior
Bree Anna Lucero recorded a kill to tie the set. The Lions then went on a 16-5 run to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
Set two began with Eastern winning the first three points as A&M-C had two attack errors and freshman
Brooklyn Biel and Lucero teamed up for a block. After the Zias went up 8-7 on another attack error by a Lion, A&M-C took eight of the next nine points to take command of the set.
ENMU fought back to within three twice with the last coming at 19-16 on a service error. Two attack errors, two bad sets and a service error from Eastern helped the visitors close out the set and go up 2-0 in the contest.
The score was tied through the first 18 points of the third set. A 10-4 burst from the Lions again gave them a big cushion.
Down 24-19, a block by Biel and Lucero began a quick three point surge for the Zias. An attack by A&M-C's Amy Davault went out of bounds on the next point but an Eastern player was ruled to have committed a block error which closed out the match for the Lions.
Gibbons led ENMU with 11 kills and had two blocks while Lucero posted six kills and led the team in attack percentage (.200) and blocks (4). Senior
Kennedi Catano, who was awarded a game ball after the match for moving into fourth place on the team's career assist list earlier this season, was credited with a team-best 11 assists. Fellow classmate
Karra Day recorded 10 assists as well.
Defensively, both sophomore
Courtney Lawson and
Andrea Aguilar had nine digs apiece while sophomore
Lindsay Bost added eight. Sophomore Laure Frye had three blocks including the squad's lone solo rejection in the match.
Eastern finishes the regular season tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. against Texas Woman's. Prior to the match, the team's five seniors will be recognized for their achievements. The Zias go into the match needing to win to clinch the sixth seed in the conference tournament along with a loss by the Lions to West Texas A&M. With a loss, Eastern will be either the seventh or eighth seed in the tournament depending on the outcomes of the other contests Saturday.
For the latest information on Zia volleyball, follow
@ENMUSports on Twitter and visit the official website of ENMU athletics at GoEasternAthletics.com.
