BoxscoreKINGSVILLE, Texas – The #16 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M made quick work of the Yellow Jackets of American International (25-16, 25-5, 25-12) in an early Saturday morning contest at the Emerald Beach Hotel Javelina Invitational at the Steinke Center in Kingsville, Texas. The Lady Buffs move to 5-2 on the season while the Yellow Jackets fall to 2-5 with the loss.
The Lady Buff came out swinging in the opening set as they jumped out to an early 6-1 lead highlighted by a pair of
Jessica Johnson service aces, the Yellow Jackets answered as they cut the lead to 7-5 before a
Kameryn Hayes kill from
Kyli Schulz sparked another WT run to run the Lady Buff lead to 18-8. Another Johnson kill followed by an International service error gave WT the serve at 20-10 followed by another Johnson kill, a pair of Yellow Jacket points cut the lead to 21-12 before Haley Prescher's first kill of the match. International wouldn't go down without a fight as they registered three straight points before a Hayes finish and a
Sydney Harlan/
Leah Mayer block forced set point, an AIC point was followed by a Yellow Jacket attack error to give WT the 25-16 decision.
The second set started out much like the first as the Lady Buffs jumped out to an early 7-2 lead with a pair of kills by
Cori Haley and
Lauren Bevan to go along with a Schulz service ace to force a Yellow Jacket timeout, Schulz continued her run at the service line with another ace to stretch the lead to 9-2 before a pair of Bevan kills and a
McKenzie Long service ace forced AIC's second timeout of the frame at 12-3. Long continued her run at the service line after the timeout as WT stretched their lead to 18-3 with a pair of service aces, the teams traded points before an AIC ball handling error before a Harlan's seventh kill of the morning that sparked another WT run ended by a Yellow Jacket attack error to give the Lady Buffs the 25-5 win.
The start of the third set saw the Lady Buffs take advantage of Yellow Jacket attack errors as seven AIC mistakes led to the first 11 points for the Lady Buffs to stretch the lead to 11-3, kills by Haley and Harlan forced an International timeout with WT leading 14-5. The teams traded points after the break before a
Marisa Ochoa kill stretched the WT lead to 18-8, a
Lauren Britten service ace gave WT the 19-8 lead while sparking a Lady Buff run highlighted by another Schulz service ace and a Haley kill to send WT into a timeout with the 21-10 lead. The teams traded service errors once again followed by a Haley kill and AIC attack error to force match point, a WT ball handling error ran the score to 24-12 before a Yellow Jacket service error ended the match at 25-12.
Harlan led the Lady Buff offensively with a career high nine kills followed by Haley with eight and Bevan with six, Schulz led the Lady Buffs with 17 assists on the morning while Hayes had 13 while Britten led all players with 11 digs in the match. West Texas A&M hit an impressive .457 in the match with 35 kills on 70 attempts with just three errors to go along with 33 assists, 41 digs and two blocks.
The Yellow Jackets were led by Shirley Bazua with seven kills followed by Bailey Swan with six, Vanessa Ruiz led the team with six assists in the match while Franny Sanchez had eight digs. The Yellow Jackets hit just .043 as a team with 22 kills on 94 attempts with 18 attack errors to go along with 19 assists, 31 digs while not registering a block.
The Lady Buffs conclude the Emerald Beach Hotel Javelina Invitational this afternoon as they begin their Lone Star Conference schedule with Texas A&M-Kingsville at the Steinke Center with first serve set for 3:30 p.m.
