Boxscore

LUBBOCK, Texas – The #25 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M dropped the opening set but rebounded as they used the power of 16 total blocks and four players with double-digit kills to run their season win streak to 14 matches on Friday afternoon as they topped Dallas Baptist (25-27, 25-13, 25-15, 25-21) at the Rip Griffin Center in Lubbock, Texas. The win lifts the Lady Buffs to 22-3 overall while the Patriots fall to 9-12.
 
The opening set saw the Lady Buffs come out swinging as they used a pair of early kills by Lexi Davis followed by a Lauren Bevan service ace and a block by Davis and Sydney Harlan as WT took the early 10-7 lead before the Patriots responded with a run of their own as they used attack errors by the Lady Buffs to take the 18-15 lead. Kyli Schulz found Harlan on the outside as WT cut the lead to 20-19 before a Lady Buff ball handling error and a DBU service ace made it 22-19, Schulz found Harlan on the outside again followed by a Jessica Johnson and Cori Haley block to make it 22-21 before a DBU attack error forced a Patriots timeout with the set tied at 22-22. Dallas Baptist wasted no time taking the lead again on a cross-court kill before Kameryn Hayes found Haley to tie the match once again, the teams would trade points before a DBU kill and a Lady Buff attack error gave the Patriots the opening set, 27-25.
 
The second set saw WT use kills by Johnson and Bevan along with a pair of DBU attack errors and a Bevan/Davis block to take the early 5-0 lead, a pair of Patriots errors and a Hayes kill ran the lead to 9-3 as the Lady Buffs continued their run highlighted by three blocks over a four point span to force a Patriots timeout with WT leading 13-5. The Lady Buffs continued to use strong defense after the break as they ran their lead to 20-10 as Schulz found Hayes on the outside for a kill followed by Harlan finish and a DBU point to make it 21-11, the teams traded points before a Haley kill and an Aspen Sanders service ace forced set point at 24-12 before a DBU kill was followed by another Haley finish to end the frame at 25-13.
 
The Lady Buffs carried over their momentum into the third set as they used three kills by Davis to force an early Dallas Baptist timeout at 8-3, another DBU ball handling error continued the WT run followed by Schulz finding Hayes for a pair of kills and a Schulz service ace to run the lead to 14-4. Bevan registered a service ace of her own followed by another Harlan kill and a Johnson finish to run the lead to 19-6, Hayes found Harlan on the outside again followed by a pair of DBU points before Johnson registered her seventh kill of the match at 21-9, Haley and Hayes connected for kills to make it 23-10 followed by a pair of DBU points and another Hayes kill to force set point, the senior would end the frame with her ninth kill of the match on a pass from Schulz to give the Lady Buffs the 25-15 win.
 
WT continued to roll in the fourth frame as they jumped out to an early 7-0 lead on a Davis kill in the middle followed by the junior registering a solo block to force a Dallas Baptist timeout, DBU registered their first point of the frame after the timeout but the Lady Buffs continued to dominate as a Hayes kill from Schulz gave the senior a triple-double followed by another Davis kill to run the lead to 10-1. The Patriots fought back to cut the WT lead to four at 18-14 to force a Lady Buff timeout, after the break DBU continued to battle back to cut the lead to 22-20 to force WT's second timeout of the set followed by another Patriots point to make it 22-21 before WT responded with a block by Harlan and Johnson followed by a pair of DBU attack errors that ended the set and the match with a 25-21.
 
The Lady Buffs were led offensively by Bevan with 13 kills followed by Davis with 11 while Johnson and Hayes tallied 10 kills each, Hayes dished out a match high 30 assists to go along with 16 digs for a triple-double while Schulz dished out 23 assists with Sanders (18) and Lauren Britten (20) registering double-digit digs. West Texas A&M hit .194 as a team with 56 kills on 160 attempts with 25 attack errors to go along with 53 assists, 82 digs and 16 total blocks on the afternoon.
 
Dallas Baptist was led by Tadam Mergener and Tiara Gipson with 10 kills each while teammate Kaycie Bird dished out a team high 26 assists on the afternoon, Mergener tied a match high with 20 digs in the match for a double-double. The Patriots hit .079 as a team with 41 kills on 165 swings with 28 attack errors to go along with 40 assists, 71 digs and just seven total blocks.
 
The Lady Buffs will waste no time returning to action as they are set to take on the Lady Chaps of Lubbock Christian with first serve set for 6 p.m. tonight at the Rip Griffin Center in Lubbock. WT will continue their road trip on Saturday as they head to Weatherford, Oklahoma for a pair of non-conference matchups with Oklahoma Baptist (3:30 p.m.) and Southwestern Oklahoma State (7 p.m.) at the Rankin Williams Fieldhouse on the SWOSU campus.