SILVER CITY, N.M. – Everything looked to be going the way of the Lady Mustangs. Cruising to a two set lead, the Western New Mexico University volleyball team was one set away from pulling off their biggest win of the season. Then, Tarleton State showed why they are one of the top teams in the South Central Region as they roared back out of the between sets break to shock the Lady Mustangs 3-2 (25-23, 25-18, 17-25, 18-25, 10-15) Friday night in Lone Star Conference action.
WNMU (16-14, 8-11 LSC) did a good job of nullifying star outside hitter Hailey Roberts in the first two sets, but she caught fire and ended up with 18 kills to lead the comeback. Autumn Taylor added 12 kills. Jordyn Keamo dished out 35 assists, while Roberts tallied 19 digs. Elizabeth Muliaga added 10 blocks, with two solo.
Junior
Kalie Lyle (Phoenix, AZ/Sandra Day O' Connor ) answered with a solid 15 kill performance to lead the Lady Mustangs. Senior
Shannon Rich (Folsom, CA/Folsom) and junior
Samantha Haupeakui (San Mateo, CA/Aragon) each went for 11 kills, while junior
Morgan Lyneis (Victorville, CA/Apple Valley) had 10 kills. Freshman
Cristal Carrizoza (Phoenix, AZ/North) ended up with 25 assists, while junior
Melanie Hughes (Riverside, CA/Martin Luther King Jr.) recorded 24. Junior
Ashley Mataele (Laie, HI/Kahuku) came away with 20 digs and both Rich and junior
Heather Verrill (Barstow, CA/Barstow ) sent back seven blocks.
Tarleton State (23-5, 15-4 LSC) held a .262 to .203 advantage in hitting percentage, 62-58 in kills, 15-12 in blocks and 57-53 in digs. WNMU held the edge in service aces (4-3) and assists (57-56).
The way the match started, it looked like Tarleton State was ready to roll to the first set moving in front 8-3. With the lead at 12-5, WNMU began to work their way back into the set. The Lady Mustangs loaded up on Roberts' side and sent back two straight blocks by Verrill and Rich and then kills by Lyle and Rich had WNMU looking at a 17-14 lead. A service ace by Rich moved WNMU to a four-point lead at 19-15. The TexAnns fought back to tie at 20 before WNMU finally moved ahead to take the set with points by Haupeakui and Rich for the 25-23 first set win.
In the second, Haupeakui helped start a 5-0 run with a kill. She added another kill and around an error by the TexAnns, Carrizoza snuck in a kill and a double-block by Haupeakui and Lyneis had the lead at 9-5. Lyle and Lyneis came away with two more kills and an attack error by Tarleton State suddenly had WNMU looking at an 18-13 lead. Rich then accounted for three straight points to move WNMU just two points away from the set at 23-15. Two TexAnn service errors gave WNMU the set at 25-18.
The intermission break between sets did more than just fire up Tarleton State, it made them come out on fire and never look back. To start the third set, the TexAnns were ahead 10-0 before anyone even knew what happened. After that, WNMU was never able to get back into the set, getting only as close as seven twice before the TexAnns claimed the 25-17 third set win.
In the fourth it remained closer until Tarleton State was able to build a three-point lead at 11-8. The lead stretched to six at 20-14 and the Lady Mustangs tried to fight back, but couldn't get over the hump getting no closer than five at 21-16 before the TexAnns took the 25-18 fourth set win to move to a decisive fifth set.
WNMU opened the scoring in the fifth when Haupeakui and freshman
Hannah Tishlarich (Elk Grove, CA/Pleasant Grove) blocked Taylor. With the set tied at two, Tarleton State went to work ripping off a 4-0 run for the 6-2 lead. With the TexAnns in control at 13-7, WNMU made one last push to make things interesting. Rich and Verrill came away with kills before a double-block by Verrill and Tishlarich had the deficit at just three, 13-10. Tarleton State was unfazed, as they calmly went to Abby Mackey and Alexis Applewhite for back-to-back kills to take the 15-10 fifth set and 3-2 match victory.
With the loss to Tarleton State, that will setup a rematch between the two teams next Thursday in the first round of the LSC Tournament as the TexAnns secured the two seed with the win, while WNMU will be locked into the seventh seed.
WNMU will close out the regular season tomorrow (Saturday) when they will face No. 10 Angelo State for senior day at 5 p.m. Eastern New Mexico pulled the five-set upset over Angelo State earlier tonight.
