Boxscore
CANYON, Texas – The #6 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M registered 16 total blocks while six different players tallied a kill as WT opened up the 2014 season with a sweep over the Grizzlies of Adams State (25-13, 25-19, 25-17) on Friday afternoon at the BritKare Lady Buff Classic at the WTAMU Fieldhouse "The Box" in Canyon. The Lady Buffs move to 1-0 while Adams State falls to 0-1.
The opening set saw both sides trade blows early before a Lady Buff run in the middle of the frame gave the momentum to the home team, the teams were tied at 9-9 before a
Lauren Bevan kill sparked a WT run to force an Adams timeout with WT leading 12-9. The Lady Buff defense who led all of NCAA Division II in blocks per set last season wasted no time proving themselves as some big blocks at the net continued the WT run to give the Lady Buffs the 25-13 win.
The WT run continued into the second set as the defense came up with a big block again with
Jessica Johnson and
Kameryn Hayes combining to give the Lady Buffs the 9-3 lead to force another Grizzlies timeout,
Lauren Britten continued her run at the service line to stretch the WT lead to 10-3 before three straight Adams State points forced a WT timeout at 10-6. The teams traded blows before kills by
Marisa Ochoa and
Leah Mayer ran the score to 19-12, the Mavs made a run but an
Aspen Sanders service ace sparked another run that was ended by a Bevan cross-court kill for the 25-19 win.
The third set saw the Lady Buffs register back-to-back blocks by Johnson and
Cori Haley to open the frame, WT would hold a slim lead at 7-6 before another Lady Buff run highlighted by a Haley kill down the line in the deep corner forced an ASU timeout at 16-8. Hayes continued her serve as another block by Johnson and Haley continued the run before Hayes found Bevan for the kill to run the lead to 22-12. Adams wouldn't go down without a fight as they pushed the score to 24-17 before an ASU attack error ended the match, 25-17.
The Lady Buffs were led offensively by Bevan with 14 kills followed by Hayes with seven and Mayer with six while Hayes also dished out 26 assists on the afternoon.
Kyli Schulz registered a team high 10 digs on the afternoon while Bevan had nine. WT hit .298 as a team with 40 kills on 94 attempts, they dished out 40 assists in the match while tallying 42 digs and 16.0 blocks including 4.5 by Johnson.
The Grizzlies were led by Alex Parker with eight kills followed by Lindsey Stint and Mallory Grimsrud with six each, Katelyn Schwartz dished out a team high 21 assists on the afternoon while Gabrielle Timmen led all players with 11 digs. Adams State hit .019 as a team with 28 kills on 107 attempts while dishing out 27 assists, the Grizzlies tallied 33 digs and 3.0 blocks on the afternoon.
The Lady Buffs return to action tonight as they take on the Mavericks of Colorado Mesa with first serve set for 7:30 p.m. to wrap-up the opening day of the BritKare Lady Buff Classic in Canyon. Mesa opens their season at 2:30 p.m. against Eastern New Mexico who topped UC-Colorado Springs earlier in the day.
