DENVER, Colo. – West Texas A&M lives to fight another day as the seventh-seeded Lady Buffs advanced to their first NCAA Division II South Central Regional Semifinal since 2017 with an upset over nationally-ranked eighth Colorado School of Mines.  WT defeated the second-seeded region foe in a five set thriller (20-25, 26-24, 25-17, 25-22, 15-13) on Thursday afternoon to advance to the regional semifinals on Friday.  The win moves WT to 24-4 on the season while the Orediggers end their campaign 26-4. 
 
The Lady Buffs will face No. 22 and sixth-seed Patriots of UT Tyler tomorrow, Dec. 3, at 5 p.m. MT at the Auraria Event Center.  The Patriots advanced to the regional semifinal with a 3-1 victory over No. 3 seed Colorado Mesa in the opening match of the tournament.  
 
After falling behind 1-0 in the match, WT came back to win the following two sets before Mines claimed the fourth for the Lady Buffs to head into the fifth set for just the fourth time this season. The Orediggers opened scoring in the fifth set until a kill by Torrey Miller and block from Miller and Marjani Stanfill gave WT a 3-2 lead. 
 
Mines used a 4-1 run to take back the lead but was responded with the Lady Buffs own successful run to make it 7-6 in favor of WT.  Another 4-1 run for the Orediggers game them a 10-8 lead until the Lady Buffs recorded the victory with the help of four consecutive points. 
 
WT had 67 kills on 187 attempts with 29 errors to hit .203 as a team with 60 assists and 84 digs.  The Lady Buffs knocked down a season-high 15 blocks against the Orediggers.
 
The Lady Buffs were led by Miller with 23 kills on 56 swings with 10 errors to hit .232 on the night to go along with 13 digs for her 13^th double-double of the season.  Camy Jones followed Miller with 14 kills while Kayla Elliott and Abi Nash each collected 12.  Elliott knocked down a career-high nine blocks while Sadie Snay paced the offense with 30 assists and Chandler Vogel picked up 28 digs to lead the back row. 
 
Julia Eiken and Rose Stuewe led the Orediggers with 14 kills each followed by Amanda Donais with 13 to go along with 12 digs.  Drew Stokes led with a match-high 59 assists while Elle Duis had 24 digs.  Mines hit .204 in the quarterfinal match with 68 kills on 201 attempts with 27 errors with 66 assists, eight blocks and 85 digs.