Boxscore

SAN ANGELO, Texas – The #24 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M dropped the opening two sets but responded in dramatic fashion as they clinched atleast a share of the program's 19^th Lone Star Conference Championship on Friday night in a five set thriller over the rival Belles of Angelo State (22-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-12) in front of over 600 fans at the Junell Center in San Angelo, Texas. The win lifts the Lady Buffs to 26-3 (13-0 LSC) while the Belles fall to 17-6 (9-5 LSC) on the season.
 
"What a win, we started off really slow and just couldn't find a rhythm. Give credit to ASU, they came out and took the momentum early and played really well, this rivalry has seen some great matches in the last few years and this just adds to the list" said WT head coach Jason Skoch "We had to go to our bench a little more than usual but give credit to those kids for being ready to step in, we've also changed up our practice plans in the last few weeks to work on longer matches and it seemed to help tonight."
 
The win gives the Lady Buffs their 35^th consecutive victory in LSC play dating back to the 2012 season and it runs WT's season win streak to 18 matches, the victory also moves the Lady Buffs to 55-15 all-time against the Belles with WT taking the last eight meetings including the last three in San Angelo to move to 21-7 on the road in the series.
 
The Lady Buffs started off the set with three straight points as Lauren Bevan and Lexi Davis found the open court followed by a Lauren Britten service ace for the 3-0 advantage before ASU's first points of the match, the teams traded blows as the Belles used a run of their own as a pair of WT attack errors gave ASU the 10-6 lead. An Angelo errant attack and a WT block by Leah Mayer and Cori Haley cut the lead to 10-8 but the Belles answered again with three straight points to force a Lady Buff timeout at 13-8, an errant serve by the Belles gave WT life after the break but ASU responded with three more kills to force WT's second timeout at 16-9.
 
Another Belles service error followed by a pair of Davis kills cut into the lead but WT gave away two points on attack errors at 19-13, Kameryn Hayes found Davis again for two more kills to cut the lead to 20-14 followed by the teams trading long rally points, a Belles kill in the deep corner ran the lead to 22-15 before a Marisa Ochoa kill and a Bevan finish forced an ASU timeout with the Belles leading 22-17. Another long rally was ended by a WT block after the break to cut the lead to four followed by an ASU kill on the outside and a Jessica Johnson finish on the slide play at 23-19, another Belles attack error was followed by a Haley kill to force another ASU timeout with the 23-21 lead. Angelo committed a ball handling error after the timeout followed by an ASU kill to force set point at 24-22 followed by a Lady Buff blocking error at the net to end the set at 25-22.
 
WT came out just like the first set and registered the first point of the frame, this time on a block by Bevan and Johnson as the teams continued to trade blows with ASU taking a 6-4 lead followed by a par of kills thru the Lady Buff block to force at WT timeout at 8-4. The teams traded points again following the break before the Belles ran their lead to 12-6 on a Lady Buffs attack error before a block by Hayes and Johnson, ASU continued to play well as they used a kill on a setter dump followed by an easy finish on an errant WT over pass to run their lead to 16-9. The Belles continued to slowly stretch their lead as it ran to 20-12 before a huge solo block by Hayes on the outside but the powerful ASU offense continued to click as they took the 21-13 lead before kills by Haley and Johnson followed by a block by the two forced a Belles timeout at 21-16.
 
Angelo responded after the timeout with a kill on the slide play before they gave the point back on a ball handling error, a long rally ended in a Bevan kill at 22-18 followed by two more Bevan finishes to force anther ASU timeout with the Belles leading 22-20. Angelo registered a kill on the outside following the timeout before giving the point back once again on an attack error, the Belles won a battle at the net to end a long rally as they forced set point at 24-21 followed by an ASU service error but a WT serve couldn't find the court to end the second set at 25-22.
 
The third set saw the Lady Buffs start fast with six of the first nine points of the frame highlighted by kills by Harland and Davis before a WT attack error and a Belles kill cut the lead to 6-5, the teams traded points as an ASU block tied the match at 7-7 followed by an Angelo attack error and a service ace by Aspen Sanders and an ASU ball handling error forced a Belles timeout with WT leading 10-7. Angelo responded after the timeout as they tied the match at 13-13 before another ASU service error and a Belles attack error ran the score to 15-13, Kyli Schulz found Davis on the quick set to continue the run before an Angelo block and a Belles kill cut the lead to 16-15. Angelo committed a setting error before WT gave the point back on a serve into the net before an ASU kill tied the frame again at 17-17, Schulz found Johnson on the quick set in the middle before the Belles tied the match again with a kill of their own on the slide play followed by an ASU block to take the 19-18 lead into a WT timeout.
 
Hayes found Ochoa on the outside after the timeout to tie the frame at 19 followed by a Sanders service ace and huge block by Haley and Johnson to force a Belles timeout with the Lady Buffs leading 21-19, the Belles committed an attack error before using a kill to make it 22-20 followed by another long rally ended by a Belles kill to make it 22-21. Bevan gave WT the serve again with a kill before WT gave it back with a setting error, Bevan struck again to force set point at 24-22 before a Lady Buff attack error gave ASU some momentum before a Belles serve found the net for the 25-23 win.
 
The Belles took the opening point of a set for the first time in the fourth frame before another Bevan kill as the teams traded blows to start the set as they split the opening 12 points before back-to-back Johnson kills gave the Lady Buffs the 8-6 lead. ASU answered with a pair of kills before Hayes found Bevan on the outside for her 18^th kill of the night followed by a Davis tip-shot in the middle to make it 10-8 before another Bevan finish forced an ASU timeout at 11-8, another Belles setting error continued the WT run after the break as Schulz registered a service ace that clipped the sideline as the Belles called another timeout at 15-9. Schulz found Bevan on the outside after the break followed by a WT block before a Lady Buff blocking error ended the run followed by an ASU service ace to force a WT timeout at 17-11.
 
Hayes connected on a quick set from Schulz after the break before a pair of WT errors cut the lead to 18-13 followed by a Belles kill on the outside, WT registered another blocking error to force a Lady Buffs timeout at 18-15. Ochoa found the deep corner for a kill after the break followed by a Belles kill and a Johnson finish on the quick set at 20-16, ASU registered four straight points to tie the set at 20-20 before a Harlan kill and a WT error tied the frame again at 21-21. Hayes found Bevan and Haley for kills to run the lead to 23-21 followed by a pair of Bevan kills to run her match total to 24 to set a new career high with the 25-21 win.
 
The deciding set saw the teams trade the first two points of the frame before an ASU kill on the slide a block on a Bevan offering was followed by another ASU point to run their lead to 4-1, the Belles committed an attack error followed by a kill in the deep corner before Schulz found Hayes in the middle on the quick set at 5-2. Angelo committed another attack error followed by a Harlan kill to cut the lead to 5-4, the Belles answered with another kill followed by a WT ball handling error at 7-5 and a Hayes kill on the outside. The Belles would take a 8-6 lead on a kill as the teams switched sides of the court as WT called a timeout, Schulz found Johnson in the middle followed by a WT attack error at 9-7.
 
Johnson connected again to give the Lady Buffs the serve but ASU took it back quickly with a kill on the slide play, an Angelo service error was followed by a Belles kill in the deep corner at 11-9. Bevan registered another kill for the WT side out followed by a block by Hayes and Davis to tie the set at 11-11 and force an ASU timeout.  Another huge WT block gave the Lady Buffs the lead after the break followed by a Schulz service ace that found an opening between two ASU defenders to force a Belles timeout at 13-11, ASU responded with a kill after the timeout before Hayes registered her seventh kill of the night for match point followed by a Davis kill on a play at the net to end a long rally for the 15-12 win.
 
The Lady Buffs were led offensively by Bevan with a career high 25 kills followed by Davis with 10 while Johnson and Hayes had seven kills each on the night, Hayes dished out 39 assists on the night while Schulz had 14 while WT was led defensively by Britten with a career high 34 digs followed by Sanders (31), Hayes (21) and Bevan (21). Bevan registered 85 attack attempts on the night to rank third all-time in WT history in a single match, passing Carol Pereira who had 84 against BYU-Hawaii on Oct. 16, 1992. West Texas A&M hit .153 as a team with 62 kills on 242 swings with 25 errors to go along with 58 assists, 142 digs and 13 total blocks on the night. WT's 142 digs ranks third all-time in the Lady Buff record book for team digs in a match passing the 2003 team who registered 134 against Cameron on Sept. 27, 2003.
 
Angelo State was led by Mallory Blausser with a team high 23 kills followed by Brianna Sotello (13), Abbie Lynn (11) and Zoey Hanrahan with 10, Alexa Johnson led all players with 60 assists on the night while Shelby Wilt registered 36 digs followed by Katie MacLeay and Sotello with 29 each. The Belles hit .184 as a team with 72 kills on 261 attempts with 24 attack errors to go along with 67 assists, 140 digs and 11 total blocks in the match.
 
The Lady Buffs have the opportunity to clinch the LSC title outright tomorrow afternoon as they head to Stephenville, Texas for a matchup against the TexAnns of Tarleton State with first serve set for 2 p.m. at Wisdom Gym. The TexAnns made quick work of Eastern New Mexico on Friday night in Stephenville, 25-17, 25-12 25-17.