Women's Volleyball | 9/17/2015 4:11:00 PM

Thursday, September 17, 2015

PORTALES, N.M. — The Eastern New Mexico University women's volleyball team will host two conference games over the weekend, starting with Texas Woman's University on Friday followed by Texas A&M University-Commerce Saturday.

Greyhounds head coach Sia Poyer said, "It's really nice to be at home to start off conference play.  Texas Woman's and Commerce are both good and going off last year I'd say both teams only got better.  Top to bottom, no one in our conference should be taken lightly."

The Pioneers head into the matchup with a 6-2 record, with wins over common opponents with ENMU such as Western State Colorado, Missouri Western State, Colorado State-Pueblo and Adams State.  The game in Greyhound Arena will be Texas Woman's first since a 3-0 win over Adams Sept. 12.

"[Texas] Woman's is a very steady team and are towards the top of the conference.  They are returning a lot of players and should be a tough team," said Poyer.

The Lions come into Greyhound Arena holding a 6-3 record thus far on the season.  The only common opponent between the Greyhounds and Commerce this season has been the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, where the Lions took the match 3-2.

ENMU's last win came over New Mexico Highlands University Sept. 15, where the Greyhounds handed the Cowboys a straight sets loss.  With the loss of some key players on the outside for the time being, the team has found that some younger players are stepping up at the right time.

"With the loss of Courtney Lawson, we are still confident and have a lot of good players to step in," said Poyer.  "It's slow at first, but Amanda Dietz and and Desiray Anderson are starting to get comfortable and have already shown a lot of promise."

The Texas Woman's match tips off Friday at 6 p.m. while the Lions will make their way down Saturday at 1:00 p.m.