CANYON, Texas – The #9 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M punched their ticket to the Colorado Premier Challenge title match on Saturday afternoon as they outlasted #5 Concordia-St. Paul in a five set thriller(21-25, 25-23, 25-20, 20-25, 15-13) at the Auraria Event Center in Denver.
 
The Lady Buffs finished the match with 62 kills on 159 swings with 26 attack errors as they hit .226 in the match with 55 assists, two aces, 68 digs and 11 blocks. Concordia-St. Paul registered 67 kills on 181 attempts with 30 attack errors for an attack percentage of .204 to go along with 64 assists, seven aces, 63 digs and seven blocks.
 
Emma Becker led the way for the Lady Buffs as the junior had a season-high 19 kills on 47 swings with 10 errors to hit .191 on the afternoon with 15 digs for a double-double. Camy Jones added 13 kills followed by Currie Marusak with eight, Ainsley Malis dished out 34 assists to go along with 10 digs while Bryli Contreras led the way in the back row with 24 digs for the Canyon product.
 
Ellie Sieling finished the match with 17 kills on 47 attempts with eight kills to go along with 13 digs, Teagan Starkey led all players with 58 assists while registering 10 digs while Emma Schmidt had 18 digs in the back row for the Golden Bears.
 
MATCH NOTES

• Saturday morning marked the sixth all-time meeting on the court between WT and Concordia-St. Paul, the Golden Bears are 4-2 in the series that dates back to 2007. It was the third meeting between the two at the Colorado Premier 
• The Lady Buffs and Golden Bears have combined to win 13 NCAA Division II National Championships, the two have battled each other twice in the National Finals (2009, 2022)
• WT looks for their fourth title at the Colorado Premier Challenge (1999, 2001, 2012)

UP NEXT
The Lady Buffs advance to the championship match as they will take on either #3 MSU Denver or #13 Chaminade today at 8:00 p.m. CT. The Roadrunners and Silverswords take on each other beginning at 12:30 p.m. CT.