MOON Township, Pa- The No. 5 West Texas A&M Lady Buffs fought in five hard sets tonight against the No. 1 University of Tampa Spartans in front of a large rowdy crowd inside the UPMC Events Center to advcane to the NCAA Division II National Championship match. The Lady Buffs had one of the best comebacks of the year in the fourth set winning 36-34. 

The Match
#5 West Texas A&M 3, #1 Tampa 2 (25-19, 23-25, 19-25, 36-24, 16-14)

The Records

• West Texas A&M 32-3 (14-2 LSC)
• University of Tampa (32-1, 19-1 SSU)

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lady Buffs took a very early lead in the first as they came out hot on offense with Torrey Miller, Camy Jones and Taytum Stow each with two kills before the first 15 points of the set. WT would go on a run of points as the Tampa Spartans called early timeouts to kill the momentum for West Texas A&M. 
 
The second and third set were slugfest as WT went point for point in kills with Tampa. The second set kept the Lady Buffs at bay always within two points of the Spartans. The Lady Buffs would come up with a few great points before Tampa would come back with a run of their own. The third set was fast off the start with Tampa taking an early lead and keeping it throughout the set. Tampa's opposite hitter, Nathaly Perez, would be too much to handle as she led her team in kills. 
 
The fourth set would be one of the biggest comeback deficits for the Lady Buffs this season. At 9-17, the Lady Buffs dug a hole for themselves but with true grit and relentlessness they would go on to score 10 points to Tampa's 7 bringing the score to 19 – 24 with Tampa at match point. But don't count the Lady Buffs out, in one of the greatest sets of volleyball the Lady Buffs would go on a 6-0 run to take a 25-24 lead. With the win by two ruling in place, the Lady Buffs would need just one more point. Tampa came up with a kill from Nathaly and the back and forth continued. There were 12 ties in the set and 5 lead changes, with 4 coming in the last 19 points of the set. A block by Emma Becker followed by a kill from Miller ended the set 36-34 in favor of the Lady Buffs. 
 
The fifth set started off promising with WT taking a 3-0 lead before Tampa called their first timeout to stop WT's momentum. The battle would continue with WT up 10-7 before Tampa came back to 11-10 over the Lady Buffs. Tampa would again reach match point first at 14-12 before WT would go on a 4-0 run to win the match 16-14 and punching their ticket to the NCAA National Finals. 

BY THE NUMBERS
Torrey Miller had 28 kills on 70 attempts with only nine errors to hit .271 in the five set thriller. Blair Moreland led with 27 assists while Bryli Contreras led with 23 digs. Taytum Stow led with four blocks. 

MILESTONES

• WT ties up the series 1-1 against Tampa in the NCAA National semifinals, Tampa leads the all-time series 8-6 
• This match was the 11^th NCAA National semifinals match for WT, with an overall record of 6-5 in the semifinals 
• WT moves to an overall 63-22 record in the NCAA post-season 
• Kendra Potts moves to 14-2 in the NCAA tournament (87.5% winning percentage)
• Potts has an overall 124-23 record for a winning percentage of 84.2%
• Torrey Miller led the match with 28 kills, her highest this season 
• Torrey Miller is 19 kills away from reaching 2,000 career kills and tying for second all-time kills leader 
• Bryli Contreras is 11 digs from 1,000 career digs 
• Emma Becker is 1 kill away from 600 career kills 
• WT will be playing in their 6^th National Championship match with a 4-1 record in the series 
• WT will be defending their national title with the potential to repeat making this only the second time in WT history for Lady Buff volleyball repeat with the last years happening in 1990 and 1991 

 
COMING UP
The Lady Buffs will play in the final match of the 2023 season as they prepare for the NCAA DII National Finals taking place tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. CT at the UPMC Events Center in Moon Township, Pa.