West Texas A&M (7-9, 2-3) at Eastern New Mexico (5-10, 2-3)
Date & Time	Friday, October 2nd 7:00 p.m. CT
Location	Portales, New Mexico | Steve Loy Family Foundation Arena
Live Statistics	Link
Live Video	FloCollege
Additional Links	Game Notes

CANYON, Texas – The Lady Buffs conclude their LSC road swing on Friday night as they make their way to Portales, New Mexico to battle the rival Greyhounds of Eastern New Mexico with first serve set for 7:00 p.m. CT.
 
EASTERN NEW MEXICO
The Greyhounds enter the weekend with an overall record of 5-10 with a 2-3 mark in Lone Star Conference action. ENMU snapped a three-match losing skid on Tuesday night as they topped the Lubbock Christian Lady Chaps in four sets on the road in Lubbock. 
 
Sophie Valdez leads the ENMU offensive attack as the senior from Roswell has registered 215 kills on 618 swings with 109 errors for an attack percentage of .172 to go along with eight assists, seven aces, 96 digs and 15 total blocks. Valdez is 13th in the nation in total attack attempts (618) and 15th in total kills (215)
 
Sydney Pipkin paces the Greyhound offense with 476 assists to average 7.80 per set, the freshman from Las Cruces has 93.0 points (1.52/set) with 69 kills, 134 digs and 16 blocks. She ranks 51st in Division II volleyball in total assists (476) and 86th in assists per set (7.80).
 
ENMU HEAD COACH KARLI BUSTOS
Karli Bustos is now in her second season guiding the Eastern New Mexico volleyball program, she spent the previous five seasons as the head coach at Trinidad State Junior College. 
 
With the Trojans, she guided the program to a 63-91 record. Most notably, Bustos helped the program go from a 2-20 season in 2020-21 to a 23-10 mark in 2024-25. The 2024-25 season is the highest winning percentage (.696) in school history. TSJC qualified for the NJCAA Region IX tournament three times during her tenure.
 
A LOOK AT THE SERIES
Friday marks the 90th all-time meeting on the court between the Lady Buffs and Greyhounds in a series that dates back to 1980. The Lady Buffs lead the series 74-15, winning the last eight meetings. West Texas A&M is 28-12 all-time in the Land of Enchantment. Last season saw the Lady Buffs sweep past the Greyhounds at The Box on October 11th. Kaycee Cavanaugh led the Lady Buffs with 12 kills while Taytum Stow had eight total blocks. WT hit .333 in the match with 11 blocks as a team to go along with three aces, 31 assists and 35 digs in the win.
 
LONE STAR CONFERENCE PRESEASON POLL
Defending league champion Angelo State claimed 41 of the possible 54 first place votes to sit atop of the poll with 951 points followed by WT (seven first place, 883), Lubbock Christian (three first place, 837), UT Tyler (778) and St. Mary's (one first place, 698) to round out the top five.
 
Texas Woman's sits sixth followed by Oklahoma Christian, Texas A&M-Kingsville, DBU, Midwestern State, St. Edward's, UT Permian Basin, UT Dallas, Western New Mexico, Texas A&M International, Cameron and Eastern New Mexico.
 
THE GAMBLE ERA
Terry Gamble became the sixth head coach in WT history to lead the Lady Buffs to the NCAA Tournament during their inaugural season at the helm in 2025. The Three-time National Champion and NJCAA Hall of Famer was named the 17th head coach in Lady Buff Volleyball history on February 4, 2025. 
 
Gamble has compiled a career record of 1,130-363 (.759) as he was just the third head coach in NJCAA history to reach 1,000 career wins on October 15, 2024. Gamble came to Canyon following seven seasons at Blinn College. He was inducted into the NJCAA Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2007 after winning three NJCAA volleyball championships (2000, 2004, 2006) and three NJCAA Coach of the Year awards.