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Western New Mexico University Athletics

Western New Mexico University Athletics
Rux Action 3

Volleyball

Mustangs Won’t Go Away

Freshman Heather Rux
The WNMU volleyball team was down by at least five points in every set versus Chadron State College Friday night, but the Mustangs would not go away. They rallied together when senior Ellen East (Pomerene, AZ, Benson High School, Yavapai Community College) was serving and came back to win each of the three sets (27-25, 26-24, 25-22). The win marks Callender's 595th career win. The Mustangs level out their season record at 9-9 and 7-3 in conference play. The Eagles drop to 3-14 overall and 3-7 in the RMAC.

In the first set, WNMU found themselves down 8-3, but East began her serving rotation with an ace. Natali Murdock (Phoenix, AZ, Pinnacle High School) then tacked on another point with a kill assisted by Ziona Verhulsdonk (Kailua, HI, Hawaii Preparatory Academy). Two consecutive Eagle hitting errors evened the score at eight.

The Mustangs fell behind again, 21-14, after five WNMU hitting errors on 12 points. The Mustangs did not commit a hitting error the rest of the set, though, which routed to a 27-25 win.

Set two was nearly identical. The Mustangs were down 10-5 this time. Too many hitting errors by the Eagles and strong hitting by Jordan Johnston (Boise, ID, Centennial High School) and Heather Rux (Cottonwood, AZ, Mingus Union High School) put the Mustangs back into the game. Both finished the second set with four kills.

The Eagles led 14-8 in set three thanks to outstanding blocking. Chadron posted seven blocks in the final set and 12 overall. Once again, East had outstanding serving and rattled off six points to tie things up at 15. Rux ended the match with an explanation point kill. She finished the third set with seven smashes.

Rux led the Mustangs in the kills category, posting 11 kills and only four errors. She was followed by Verhulsdonk, Johnston, and Murdock who each had eight.

East posted a double-double in the victory. She had 37 assists and 17 digs. Marilee Frost (Long Beach, CA, Robert A. Millikan High School) did one better on defense as she finished with 18 digs on the night.

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