Boxscore
CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M senior outside hitter
Lauren Bevan tallied a match high 17 kills while freshman
Sydney Harlan had a career high 11 as the Lady Buffs rolled past the TexAnns of Tarleton State in straight sets (25-21, 25-12, 25-20) in front of over 500 fans at the WTAMU Fieldhouse "The Box" in Canyon on Friday night. The Lady Buffs move to 11-3 (4-0 LSC) on the season while the TexAnns fall to 10-3 (4-2 LSC).
The opening set started off with the TexAnns coming out swinging as they jumped out to an early 9-5 lead to force a Lady Buff timeout, Tarleton ran their lead to 16-13 before the WT defense stepped up with three straight blocks by
Jessica Johnson and
Cori Haley to tie the match at 16-16.
Sydney Harlan connected on kill from
Kyli Schulz to continue the WT run highlighted by a
Lauren Bevan kill to force another TSU timeout at 21-18, the TexAnns responded as they used a solo block to send WT into a timeout with the 22-21 lead. The Lady Buffs ended the set on a 3-0 run as another Bevan kill was followed by two TexAnn attack errors for the 25-21 win.
The second set saw the Lady Buffs come out with the momentum as they jumped out to an early 11-5 lead as Johnson and
Kameryn Hayes combined for a block at 10-5 followed by a Hayes cross court finish from Schulz to force a TexAnn timeout at 11-5.
Lauren Britten continued her run at the service line after the break with a service ace followed by a Johnson kill on an over pass to run the lead to 14-5 before a pair of TSU blocks forced a WT timeout at 14-7. The Lady Buffs started another run after the break as Bevan and Johnson combined for kills to force TSU's second timeout of the frame at 18-8, WT continued their run after the timeout as a Bevan kill brought set point at 24-11 followed by a TexAnn service error to give WT the 25-11.
The third set saw the teams come out trading blows as the TexAnns took the early 4-2 lead before a WT run highlighted by a
Lexi Davis kill in the middle and a Haley kill in the deep corner from Hayes to force a TSU timeout with the Lady Buffs leading 11-7. Hayes continued the run after the timeout with a service ace before Tarleton responded with a run of their own to force a Lady Buff timeout following a pair of TSU blocks with WT leading 15-10, Tarleton cut the lead to 16-12 before back-to-back Lady Buff blocks and a Bevan kill followed by a TSU attack error ran the lead to 19-12. The TexAnns took a timeout at 21-13. The TexAnns wouldn't go down without a fight as they used a pair of WT attack errors to cut the lead to 23-17 to force WT's second timeout of the frame, TSU cut the lead to 23-19 before a Harlan kill forced match point, TSU answered with a kill of their own before a TexAnn ball handling error ended the match at 25-20.
The Lady Buffs were led by Bevan with 17 kills followed by Harlan with a career high 11 while Haley and Johnson had five each on the night, Hayes dished out a match high 27 assists while Britten had a great night in the back row with 13 digs to lead all players. West Texas A&M hit .210 as a team with 43 kills on 100 attempts with 22 attack errors while registering 40 assists, 43 digs and seven blocks on the night.
The TexAnns were led offensively by Hailey Roberts with seven kills followed by Kelsey Raglin and Ashley Rine with four each, Emily Medelin led the team with 13 assists while Alyssa Garcia led the way with eight digs in the match. Tarleton State hit .043 as a team with 23 kills on 92 attempts with 19 attack errors while tallying 22 assits, 28 digs and seven blocks on the night.
The Lady Buffs return to action tomorrow afternoon as they host the Belles of Angelo State at the WTAMU Fieldhouse "The Box" with first serve set for 2 p.m. in Canyon. It will mark a rematch of the last two South Central Region Title matches both won by the Lady Buffs, the Belles topped Eastern New Mexico in straight sets on Friday night in Portales.
