Boxscore

GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado – The #24 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M took the opening two sets before needing a five set thriller over Regis (25-19, 25-18, 22-25, 17-25, 16-14) to advance to their fourth straight NCAA Division II South Central Regional Semifinal on Friday night at Brownson Arena inside of the Mavericks Center on the campus of Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Lady Buffs move to 32-4 on the season while the Rangers end their campaign at 19-10. The win also gives WT head coach Jason Skoch his 200th victory at the helm of the Lady Buffs, moving his record in Canyon to 200-29 (.873) while also improving his career mark to 336-49 (.873).
 
"First of all, congrats to Regis on a great season and an exciting match. They're a talented team with a lot of size and speed and we're really excited to get the win and keep our season alive" said Skoch in a post-match press conference "I thought we played really well the first two sets and got a little too comfortable against a team that never gives up, Lexi and Jessica were our spark tonight in every area of the game. Now we have a little time to rest and get ready for tomorrow's semifinal."
 
The opening set saw the Lady Buffs take momentum early as Jessica Johnson registered a solo block for the first point of the match before the Rangers responded with three straight points before a Regis serve couldn't find the court at 3-2, the teams traded points as Regis took the 6-3 lead before a pair of Ranger attack errors and a Lexi Davis kill tied the set at 7-7. Kameryn Hayes found Johnson on the slide play for the 8-7 lead followed by a Marisa Ochoa tip shot that found the open floor at 9-7, the teams traded points again as WT held the 12-10 lead before Hayes found Lauren Bevan for her first kill of the night at 13-10 followed by a Rangers setting error to force a Regis timeout at 14-10.
 
A great Aspen Sanders dig after the break led to another WT point before the Rangers answered with a pair of their own to make it 15-12, another Regis serve couldn't find the court followed by a block by L. Davis and Hayes continued the Lady Buff run as another Bevan kill make it 18-13. The Rangers connected on the slide play before Corey Davis found Hayes on the back-set followed by a L. Davis service ace to head into another Regis timeout with WT leading 20-14. The teams traded points after the timeout as the Lady Buffs held the 22-17 lead followed by Hayes finding Cori Haley on the outside for the cross-court kill, the Rangers registered a kill before another Haley kill forced set point at 24-18 before Regis answered with a kill on the slide play before C. Davis found Hayes in the middle for the 25-19 win.
 
Johnson began the second set just like the first as the junior middle registered a kill on the slide play before the Rangers responded with three straight before L. Davis connected on the kill followed by a C. Davis service ace to tie the set at 3-3, the teams traded points before a block by Bevan and L. Davis gave WT the 5-4 lead followed by a long rally that was ended by a Hayes cross-court kill at 6-4. The Rangers responded with a pair of blocks and a tip shot kill to retake the lead at 7-6 as the teams traded points with a Johnson kill on the slide play tying the frame at 8-8 followed by a Hayes service ace, the two sides continued to battle as the frame remained tied at 14-14 before L. Davis broke the tie with a huge kill in the middle followed by a pair of Ranger attack error to send the teams into a Regis timeout at 17-14.
 
The Lady Buffs continued to play well after the timeout as Hayes and L. Davis registered kills to give WT the 19-17 lead followed by a Johnson kill on an errant Rangers pass that found its way over the net at 20-17 before Regis committed a pair of ball-handling errors to head into another timeout at 22-17. The teams traded kills after the break as Bevan found the deep corner at 23-18 followed by a Haley kill on the slide to force set point at 24-18, the Rangers committed their 10^th attack error of the match as they gave the Lady Buffs the 2-0 lead with the 25-18 win.
 
The teams traded the first eight points of the third set as L. Davis found Ochoa on the outside for the kill off of the block at 4-4 before an errant Lady Buff serve gave was followed by a Rangers service ace to make it 6-4 followed by a Lady Buff attack error and a Rangers kill to force a WT timeout with Regis leading 8-4. Hayes registered her eighth kill of the match to end the Regis run after the break as the Lady Buffs registered a run of their own as Regis committed a pair of setting errors followed by another Bevan kill to cut the lead to 11-10, the Rangers found the open court but the WT defense responded with a block by L. Davis and Bevan followed by a great McKenzie Long dig that led to a Lady Buff point to tie the set at 12-12.
 
The Rangers registered three straight points to take the 15-12 lead before L. Davis connected again on the kill from a quick set followed by a Sydney Harlan kill on the bump set by Long and a Hayes kill to force a Regis timeout with the frame tied at 15-15. The teams traded points as Johnson connected again on the slide play at 16-16 followed by another Regis ball-handling error, the Rangers responded to take the 19-17 lead to head into a Lady Buffs timeout. Johnson continued to swing as she registered another kill on the quick set after the break as WT cut the lead to 20-19 on a Regis blocking error before the Rangers answered with a kill at 21-19, RU committed an attack error at 21-20 but the Lady Buff couldn't fine the court on a serve attempt followed by a Rangers kill to make it 23-20. Hayes found Bevan on the outside to end the Regis run at 23-21 before Regis connected on another cross-court kill to force set point, L. Davis connected again on the quick set before the Rangers registered the kill off of a WT block to take the set, 25-22.
 
The fourth set saw the two teams trade the first six points of the frame as Bevan registered her ninth kill of the night at 3-3 followed by a Regis attack error before the Rangers responded with three straight points of their own to take the 6-4 advantage, the Rangers continued to click as they ran their lead to 10-6 before Haley connected on a kill in the middle off of the block. The Rangers ran their lead to six at 15-9 before C. Davis found Hayes on the outside for the cross-court kill followed by a Bevan service ace between two RU defenders at 15-11, WT committed a blocking error before L. Davis crushed a kill in the middle at 16-12 followed two points later by a Johnson kill on the tip and a Rangers attack error to cut the lead to 17-14.
 
The Rangers responded as they registered three straight points to take the 20-14 lead followed by another Lady Buff attack error to give Regis the 21-14 lead, the Rangers continued their run as they registered a block in the middle before serving the ball out of bounds at 22-15. Regis connected on the tip kill off of the Lady Buff block at 23-15 before serving the ball into the net followed by another L. Davis kill to cut the advantage to 23-17, the Rangers answered again with a kill down to line to force set point followed by a Lady Buff attack error to send the teams into a fifth and deciding set at 25-17.
 
The fifth and deciding set started off with a Rangers kill off of the block followed by an RU ball-handling error before the Rangers committed their 16^th attack error of the match to give WT the 2-1 lead, the Rangers tied the frame on a long rally that was ended by a block followed by another RU block in the middle at 3-2. The Rangers couldn't fine the court on their serve attempt at 3-3 followed by a great dig by Lauren Britten that led to a Bevan kill in the deep corner, Regis responded with two straight kills before L. Davis found the open court again at 5-5. The teams traded points again as the junior middle ran her kill total to 14 at 6-6 before a WT serve found the net, Johnson registered a block in the middle to tie the frame again at 7-7 before a Rangers kill sent them into the side switch with the 8-7 lead.
 
Another tip shot in the middle gave the Rangers the 9-7 lead heading into a Lady Buff timeout, the Lady Buffs committed another attack error before Hayes found Johnson on the slide play at 10-8. A great rally was ended by a Johnson kill in the middle followed by a block by Johnson and Haley to tie the frame at 10-10 before a Rangers attack error forced a Regis timeout with WT leading 11-10. The Lady Buffs committed an attack error after the timeout to tie the set at 11-11 followed by a pair of Regis kills off of the block to force a WT timeout with the Rangers leading 13-11, Johnson continued to dominate as she found the open floor on the tip shot followed by a Davis blast to tie the frame at 13-13 to force RU's final timeout. A block by Davis and Bevan forced match point at 14-13 before the Rangers responded with a kill in the middle at 14-14, Davis found the middle again on the tip shot to bring up match point again followed by a Bevan and L. Davis block to end the match at 16-14.
 
The Lady Buffs were led by Davis with a career high 16 kills on 31 swings to hit .290 on the night followed by Johnson and Bevan with 11 kills each while Hayes finished with 10 to go along with 26 assists and 10 digs for the triple-double. C. Davis led the Lady Buffs with 29 assists on the night while Sanders led the team with 14 digs followed by Britten with 12. West Texas A&M hit .226 as a team with 58 kills on 164 swings with 21 attack errors to go along with 57 assists, 70 digs and nine total blocks in the match.
 
The Rangers were led by Caitie Breaux with a matach high 24 kills on 60 swings to hit .250 followed by Maggie Steward with 15 while Gina Morgan and Mary Schroeder had 10 kills each on the night. Jaclyn Williamson led all players with 35 assists in the match while Maya Kirkbey registered a match high 24 digs. Regis hit .264 as a team with 68 kills on 178 swings with 21 attack errors to go along with 65 assists, 73 digs and eight total blocks in the match.
 
The Lady Buffs advance to their fourth straight and 22^nd overall Regional Semifinal on Saturday night to face the winner of the Angelo State/Colorado Mesa matchup taking place tonight at Brownson Arena. Action will begin tomorrow with Tarleton State and Arkansas-Fort Smith matching up in the first semifinal at 6 p.m. CT followed by the Lady Buffs and ASU/CMU winner at 8:30 p.m. CT.