Boxscore
LEBANON, Illinois – The #20 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M rebounded from an early afternoon loss to Truman State with a four set victory over the Bearcats of McKendree University (25-15, 21-25, 25-21, 25-19) on Saturday night at the Statham Sports Center in Lebanon, Illinois. The Lady Buffs move to 9-3 on the season while the Bearcats fall to 5-4.
The opening set saw the Lady Buffs shake off the early afternoon loss to Truman State as they took the early 12-6 lead, WT continued to roll early as they used kills by
Kameryn Hayes and
Lauren Bevan along with a block by Hays and
Leah Mayer to stretch their lead to 18-10 and force a Bearcat timeout. Mayer and Hayes connected again after the timeout to run the lead to 23-11 before the Bearcats made a run to cut the lead to 23-14 before a Hayes kill forced set point and a Bearcat service error ended the set at 25-15.
The Bearcats came out swinging in the second set as they took the early 11-8 lead before a McKendree service error sparked a WT run highlighted by a Bevan kill to force a Bearcats timeout with the set tied at 13-13. McKendree took the 21-18 lead before a
Cori Haley kill from
Kyli Schulz made it 21-19, the Bearcats responded as they scored four of the next six points to take the second set 25-21.
The two teams started off the third set by trading blows as they split the first 26 points of the frame before a Lady Buff run highlighted by a pair of Hayes kills along with one from freshman
Sydney Harlan to force a Bearcat timeout with WT leading 18-16. A block by Bevan and
Jessica Johnson brought the two teams back from the timeout as the Lady Buffs finished the set on a 7-5 run ended a Bevan kill from Schulz to give WT the 25-21 win.
The teams traded blows to start the fourth and final set as they split the first 18 points before a WT run gave the Lady Buffs the 15-11 lead on a Bearcats attack error, the Lady Buffs continued to build their lead as they ran the score to 21-16 on a ball handling error by the Bearcats. WT ended the set on a 4-3 run as they took advantage of two more McKendree errors to end the set and the match at 25-19.
WT was led offensively by Bevan with 16 kills and 10 digs for a double-double while fellow senior Hayes had 15 kills and 26 assists for her own double-double, Haley registered a career high 11 kills with Harlan tallying seven while Laurent Britten led all players with 18 digs. The Lady Buffs hit .289 as a team with 55 kills on 142 attempts with 14 attack errors to go along with 54 assists, 53 digs and 12.0 total blocks.
McKendree was led by Lauren Apetz with 12 kills while teammate Sophie Fariman had 11 on the night, Aubry Dickmann dished out a team high 20 assists while tallying 13 digs for the double-double while teammate Abby Hanger led the team with 17 digs. The Bearcats hit .159 as a team with 52 kills on 145 attempts with 29 attack errors while registering 51 assists, 61 digs and just four blocks on the night.
WT returns to the friendly confines of the WTAMU Fieldhouse "The Box" on Tuesday night as they host the Aggies of Cameron with first serve set for 7 p.m. in Lone Star Conference action. The Lady Buffs carry a 26 match conference win streak into the contest along with a 42-2 all-time record against the Aggies with WT taking the last 23 meetings between the two teams.
