Boxscore
KINGSVILLE, Texas – The #16 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M used a balanced attack to sweep the Skyhawks of Fort Lewis (25-17, 25-13, 25-20) on Friday afternoon to conclude the first day of the Emerald Beach Hotel Javelina Invitational at the Steinke Center in Kingsville, Texas. The Lady Buffs move to 4-2 on the season while the Skyhawks fall to 1-4 with the loss.
The opening set saw the two teams trade blows early as a
Leah Mayer kill from
Kyli Schulz gave the Lady Buffs the early 6-4 lead, Schulz found
Lauren Bevan on the outside followed by a
Kameryn Hayes kill to force a Fort Lewis timeout with WT leading 8-4. Mayer continued her hot start to the match with her third kill to run the WT lead to 10-6 before the Skyhawks responded with a run of their own to force a WT timeout at 12-9. Fort Lewis continued their run after the break to cut the lead to two at 17-15 before an
Aspen Sanders kill in the back row followed by another Hayes kill to force a Fort Lewis timeout at 19-15. WT continued to roll after the timeout as they used kills by Harlan and Hayes followed by a pair of Fort Lewis attack errors to force set point before a
Jessica Johnson kill gave WT the 25-17 decision.
Sanders started off the second set with a service ace followed by a block by Johnson and
Cori Haley for the early 2-0 lead before the Lady Buffs capitalized on a pair of Skyhawk ball handling errors to take the 5-2 lead into a Fort Lewis timeout. FLC fought back to cut the lead to 10-9 before back-to-back Harlan kills that sparked a small WT run to force another Skyhawk timeout at 15-11, Haley registered four straight kills after the break to continue the WT run as the Lady Buffs pushed their lead to 22-12 followed by Mayer and Bevan kills to force set point before Hayes ended the set at 25-13.
The third set saw both teams trade blows early as they split the opening 14 points of the frame as the WT bench decided to take a timeout at 7-7, the Skyhawks took the lead following the break on a Lady Buff attack error before a FLC ball handling error sparked a WT run highlighted by a Sanders service ace to force a Skyhawk timeout at 10-8. WT continued their run after the break as kills from Johnson and Haley pushed the score to 15-9, the Skyhawks cut the lead to 19-16 on a Lady Buff attack error before a FLC ball handling error and a Johnson kill extended the WT lead to five at 21-16. WT used a pair of Skyhawk mistakes along with a Bevan kill to force match points at 24-19 before a Fort Lewis attack error ended the match, 25-19.
The Lady Buffs were led offensively by Bevan with 10 kills followed by Hayes with nine, Johnson with eight and Haley with seven. Hayes dished out a team high 20 assists on the afternoon while Schulz registered 16,
Lauren Britten led the way defensively with 18 digs while Schulz had eight. WT hit .333 as a team with 49 kills on 102 attempts with 15 errors to go along with 40 assits, 52 digs and five total blocks.
The Skyhawks were led by Ashley Wells with 10 kills followed by Stephani Sonka with five and Emily Dellenbach with four while teammate Ciara Krening led the team with 11 assists on the afternoon while Ally Dell'Amico registered 13 digs followed by Wells with 10 for the double-double. Fort Lewis hit .140 as a team with 27 kills on 107 attempts with 12 attack errors to go along with 23 assists, 32 digs and six total blocks on the afternoon.
The Lady Buffs return to action tomorrow as they take on the Yellow Jackets of American International at 8 a.m. before hitting the court at 3:30 p.m. in their Lone Star Conference opener against the host Javelinas at Holiday Inn Court inside of the Steinke Center. Live stats will be available for both matches, for more information visit the volleyball schedule page at GoBuffsGo.com.
