Boxscore

GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado – The #24 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M dropped the opening two sets but battled back before falling in four sets to the #7 Mavericks of Colorado Mesa University (19-25, 8-25, 25-21, 24-26) on Saturday night in the South Central Regional Semifinals in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Lady Buffs end their season at 32-5 while the Mavericks advance to tomorrow's Regional Championship with an overall record of 29-3.
 
The Lady Buffs came out strong as they responded to a kill on the match's opening point by the Mavericks with three straight points highlighted by a Lexi Davis service ace before CMU responded to take the 9-6 lead on a pair of Lady Buff attack errors before Kameryn Hayes found Davis in the middle on the quick set, Mesa stretched their lead to four at 12-8 before Hayes dished to Cori Haley for a huge kill followed by a Maverick setting error. Corey Davis found Lauren Bevan on the outside for the cross-court finish at 14-12 followed by a Bevan service ace that barely found it way over the net, Sydney Harlan struck with a kill at 15-14 before Mesa answered with three straight points to force a WT timeout at 18-14.
 
C. Davis found Harlan on the outside for the kill off of the block after the break followed by the two teams trading points before L. Davis struck again on the quick set followed by a Mavericks blocking error to cut the lead to 19-17, the teams traded kills in the middle before a WT service error and an attack into the net ran the Mesa lead to 22-18 to force another Lady Buff timeout. Another Lady Buff error followed by a Mavericks kill forced set point followed by a CMU blocking error before the Mavericks took the first set on a quick set kill in the middle, 25-19.
 
The Mavericks started off the second set strong as they carried over their .538 hitting percentage from the opening frame to force an early WT timeout with the 4-1 lead followed by a Mesa kill in the deep corner and a pair of Lady Buff errors to take the 7-1 lead, Kyli Schulz found Jessica Johnson on the slide play to stop the run before the Mavericks answered with four of the next six points to run their lead to 11-3 headed into the second WT timeout of the frame. Mesa continued to play well as they registered a pair of kills after the timeout before a Harlan kill and a CMU attack error cut the lead to 13-5 before four more Mesa points ran their lead to 17-5.
 
A long and exciting rally was ended by a Hayes kill in the deep corner before the Mavericks registered a point of their own on a WT attack error followed by a Mesa service ace that found the back line and another Lady Buff attack error at 20-6. Another Mavericks serve found the back line at 21-6 followed by a WT attack error and a Lady Buff service ace two points later at 23-7, Mesa registered a solo block to force set point at 24-7 before WT registered a point on a Mavericks attack error but CMU would end the frame on a Lady Buff blocking error to take the set, 25-8.
 
The Lady Buffs started off the third set with a block by Johnson and Haley followed by a Mavericks attack error to spark a run highlighted by a long rally ended by a Bevan cross-court kill to head into a WT timeout with the Lady Buffs leading 4-2, the teams traded blows after the break as the Mavericks fought back to take the 6-5 lead on the quick set followed by a kill off of the block before WT answered with a Hayes kill in the deep corner and a block by Johnson and Leah Mayer to tie the set at 7-7. The teams continued to battle as Harlan connected on a pair of kills followed by a Johnson finish on the slide play to take the 10-9 lead, CMU hit into the net on their next attempt followed by another block by Johnson and Bevan to force a Mesa timeout at 12-9.
 
WT continued to click offensively as they ran their lead to 14-9 followed by a block by Johnson and Haley before the Mavericks found an opening in the middle of the court to end the run but Bevan gave the serve back to WT with a kill off of the block at 16-10. The Mavericks used a Lady Buff attack error and a pair of kills to force a WT timeout at 16-13, Hayes connected with Bevan on the outside after the break followed two points later by a L. Davis smash on the quick set at 18-14 followed by a Mesa attack error to force a CMU timeout at 19-14.
 
McKenzie Long registered a service ace after the timeout followed by another L. Davis kill on the quick set to make it 21-14 followed by a solo block by the junior, the Mavs answered with a kill before Harlan struck again with the cross-court finish at 23-15. Mesa cut the lead to 23-18 on a pair of WT attack errors before a Mavericks attack error brought set point for WT, CMU answered with three straight points to cut the lead to 24-21 before a Mesa serve found the net to end the frame at 25-21.
 
The fourth set started off with the teams trading blows before a pair of Maverick points gave CMU the early 6-3 lead before Bevan found the deep corner followed by a block by Hayes and L. Davis and a Hayes kill to tie the set at 6-6, C. Davis found L. Davis on the quick set smash in the middle to spark a WT run that tied the match at 9-9 on a Johnson finish on the slide. The Lady Buffs continued to click as a Haley kill on an errant over pass gave WT the 11-10 lead before a Mavs block to end a long rally tied the frame again, the teams traded points again the frame remained tied at 15-15 before a pair of WT errors forced a Lady Buffs timeout with Mesa leading 17-15.
 
Harlan gave the Lady Buffs the serve after the timeout with a kill off of the block followed by a Mesa attack error to tie the frame at 17-17 followed by a Johnson kill on the slide play to force a Mavericks timeout with the Lady Buffs leading 18-17, the Mavs tied the match with a kill on the quick set before Johnson connected on another slide play at 19-18 followed by an Aspen Sanders service ace. The teams traded attack errors followed by a Mavericks kill on the tip shot to cut the lead to 21-20 followed by a Mesa block to tie the match at 21-21, the teams traded kills in the middle as the crowd rose to their feet before WT committed an attack error to give Mesa the 23-22 lead. The Mavericks connected on a kill in the deep corner off of the quick set to force match point heading into a WT timeout at 24-22 followed by a Bevan kill and a Harlan finish to tie the match at 24-24. Mesa registered a kill off of the block to force match point once again followed by a kill in the deep corner to take the match, 26-24.
 
The Lady Buffs were led by Bevan, Harlan and Johnson with 10 kills each followed by Haley with eight and L. Davis with seven, Hayes dished out a team high 22 assists in her final match in a WT uniform while Lauren Britten tallied 21 digs on the night. West Texas A&M hit .094 on the night with 49 kills on 171 attempts with 33 attack errors to go along with 46 assists, 63 digs and six total blocks on the night.
 
Colorado Mesa was led by Melissa Hess with a match high 19 kills on 38 swings to hit .447 in the match followed by Abby Ney with 13 kills on the night, Jordyn Moody led all players with 44 assists while Kricket Adleman had 13 digs in the match. The Mavericks hit .221 as a team with 51 kills on 149 attempts with 18 attack errors to go along with 49 assists, 73 digs and six total blocks on the night.