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CANYON, Texas – The No. 11 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M will have one final tune-up before the league tournament when they host Texas A&M-Kingsville (Nov. 4) and Texas A&M International this weekend (Nov. 5).  WT will face the Javelinas at 6 p.m. for Senior Night on Friday before Saturday's regular season finale at 2 p.m.
 
WT will honor five Lady Buff seniors with Samantha Jordan, Katrina Johnson, Abi Nash, Kayla Elliott, and Lindsey Bullard prior to Friday's match. 
 
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
Texas A&M-Kingsville
Texas A&M-Kingsville ranks fourth in the Lone Star Conference standings with a 11-3 league record and 19-8 overall under head coach Tanya Allen-Gonzalez.  The New Mexico State alum has led the Javelinas to 204-147 record during her 13 seasons. 
 
WT is looking to extend their eight-game win streak and leads the all-time series 54-13 including a 28-6 record Canyon.  Under coach Potts, the Lady Buffs are 2-0 with a pair of sweeps. 
 
Jackie Alanis leads the offense with 350 kills (3.50/set) on 1,106 attempts with 119 errors to hit .227 while posting a team-high 25 aces.  Sydney Whitmire has paced the Javelinas with 673 assists (6.73/set) this season to go alone with 24 aces. Nicole Murff has 551 digs (5.51/set) with 11 reception errors while Ayanna Jackson and Kailey Estrada combine for 179.0 blocks with Estrada having a team-high 20 solo stops. 
 
Texas A&M International
Texas A&M International is having one of the most historic seasons in program history with a 21-6 overall record, currently in a tie second in the LSC standings with a 12-2 league record. Second-year head coach Brittany Harry is leading the charge as turned a program that finished 4-20 last season to earning its first 20-win season for the first time since 2006. 
 
Saturday's match marks just the sixth meeting between the two schools with WT leading the all-time series 5-0 including a 2-0 record in Canyon.  Under coach coach Potts, the Lady Buffs are 2-0 against the Dustdevils.
 
The Dustdevils are hitting .214 as a team led by outside hitter Mackenzie Catalina.  The Cedar Park product leads the team with 32 aces while totaling 391 kills on the season for 3.87 per set to hit .232 followed by Megan Menchaca (3.67/set) who has been named the LSC Offensive Player of the Week twice this season.  Emma Lade has totaled a league-high 1,116 assists this season, averaging 11.05 a set which ranks 10^th in the nation. On defense, Lixai Perez has collected 464 digs (4.59/set) while Hannah Thompson and Jasmin Garcia have combined for 130 blocks with 16 of those recorded as solo stops. 
 
A WIN WOULD
A win on Friday or Saturday would crown the Lady Buffs the Lone Star Conference Regular Season Champions for the first time since 2014, marking the 20^th in program history. As the regular season champion, WT would host the Lone Star Conference Tournament with the quarterfinal matches set for Nov. 10, followed by the semifinals on Nov. 11 and championship match on Nov. 12. 
 
AROUND THE LONE STAR 
WT leads the conference standings with a perfect 14-0 record followed by DBU (12-2), Texas A&M International (12-2), Texas A&M-Kingsville (11-3), UT Tyler (10-4), St. Mary's (10-6), UAFS (7-7) and Angelo State (7-7) rounding out the top eight. The top eight programs from the conference will advance to the league tournament on Nov. 10-12 hosted on the campus of the top seed. 
 
REGIONALLY RANKED
No. 1 MSU Denver Roadrunners are ranked first in the regional rankings with a 21-0 in-region record followed by WT, Colorado Mesa, Regis, Colorado School of Mines, DBU, UT Tyler, Colorado State-Pueblo, Texas A&M-Kingsville and Texas A&M International.  
 
The 64-team field for the 2022 NCAA DII Volleyball Championships will be announced on Sunday, Nov. 13, via an online selection show on NCAA.com at 9 p.m. CT. Winners of the Lone Star Conference and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournaments will receive automatic bids with the final six spots being determined by the NCAA selection committee. 
 
A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
WT is hitting .256 as a team which ranks second in the Lone Star Conference while leading the league in kills per set (13.88), points per set (17.94) and blocks per set (2.48) while also limiting opponents to hit just .127 which is the lowest in the league. 
 
The Lady Buffs are represented in the Top 10 of the LSC individual leaderboards of the with freshman Taytum Stow leading the league in blocks per frame (1.23).  Four Lady Buffs rank in the Top 20 in hitting percentage with Stow in second at .363 followed by Kayla Elliott (8^th; .310), Emma Becker (11^th; .297), and Torrey Miller (16^th; .267).  
 
HOME DOMINANCE
WT houses one of the best home environments in the country across all of NCAA volleyball.  Built in 1951, the WTAMU Fieldhouse, best known as "The Box" is home to 20 Lone Star Conference Championships, 14 regional titles and three NCAA Division II National Championships.  At "The Box", the Lady Buffs are 518-83 since 1980 for an incredible winning percentage of 86.2% and 90.6% during conference play.  
 
IN THE POLLS
MSU Denver remained atop the national standings at 23-1 overall with 31 of the 47 possible votes for 1,155 total points followed by Wayne State (15-fpv, 1,139), Concordia-St. Paul (1,044), Tampa (986) and Minnesota Duluth (923) rounding out the top five.  From the South Central Region, three other schools are represented in the poll with Regis sitting at 14^th followed by Colorado Mesa in 13^th and Colorado School of Mines in 22^nd.
 
MAKE IT A DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Four players have recorded double-doubles this season with Abi Nash, Torrey Miller, Ainsley Malis, and Blair Moreland totaling 14.  Torrey Miller leads the category with seven on the season which includes 118 kills and 91 digs. Malis is second with five followed by Nash and Moreland each with one. 
 
LAST TIME OUT
WT finished the away schedule regular season on a high note as the No. 11 Lady Buffs defeated Western New Mexico in three straight sets to extend their win streak out to 15. WT hit .276 on Friday night with 39 kills on 98 attempts with 12 errors to go along with 56 digs, 37 assists, eight blocks and six aces while the defense limited to Mustangs to hit -.019, the lowest of the season.
 
Freshman Emma Becker led the Lady Buffs offense for the third time this season with seven kills on 16 swings with just one error to hit .375 while Ashlyn Vinyard and Angelina Oliver each had six. Blair Moreland led the night with a match-high 17 assists while Bryli Contreras and Abi Nash combined for 21 digs.  Oliver had a season-high five blocks including three solo to lead at the net.  
 
WT HEAD COACH KENDRA POTTS
Kendra Potts is in her fourth season at the helm of Lady Buff Volleyball with an overall 80-20 (.800) record and 51-10 (.836) in league play.  Potts led her alma mater to the program's 14^th NCAA Elite Eight Appearance after capturing the South Central Regional title to become the sixth head coach in program history to guide WT to the Elite Eight. 
 
MAKING HISTORY
Following the LSC opening weekend, WT swept the LSC weekly awards for the first time since 2011 as Ainsley Malis was named the Setter of the Week while Torrey Miller and Taytum Stow earned Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week honors.  The trio became the first Lady Buffs to sweep the weekly honors since Nov. 2, 2011, with Ashley Davis, Erin Dougherty, and Lacy Hayes where WT finished 34-3 overall. WT is the only school to claim all three conference honors in a single week this season while claiming nine total this year. 
 
BRITKARE COURT
WT Athletics proudly announced a new state-of-the-art court for the historic home of Lady Buff Volleyball thanks to a generous gift from BritKare Home Medical that highlighted the 2021 season.   ­BritKare Court at The Box features a top-line Taraflex court surface that is widely used in Division I arenas, professional volleyball and was most recently featured at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.  Since BritKare Court's installment, the Lady Buffs have posted an incredible 22-1 record with a winning percentage of 95.7%. 
 
LIVE COVERAGE
A live stream and stats will be provided for both matches by the WT Athletic Communications department which will be streamed on the Lone Star Conference Digital Network.  Fans will be able to purchase a $10 daily pass that will give them access to all contests on the network that day as well as access to previously aired games from the current season for 24 hours. 
 
UP NEXT
The Lady Buffs will wait for the Lone Star Conference announcement for the postseason tournament.  The top seed will host the LSC Tournament on campus on Nov. 10-12 with the champion receiving the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament starting on Thursday, Nov. 17.
 
FOLLOW THE LADY BUFFS
Fans can follow and stay up to date on all the Lady Buff action on online and on social media.  Follow the Lady Buffs on Twitter (@WTVolleyball), Instagram (@ladybuffvolleyball), Facebook (@WTVolleyball) and now Tik Tok (@WestTexasAMVB).