ODESSA – The Angelo State volleyball team split a pair of non-conference matches on Tuesday with a 3-1 win over Texas-Permian Basin after a five-set loss to Wayland Baptist at the Falcon Dome.
The Belles (13-6) are now 8-3 in non-conference matches this season and are 3-0 against Heartland Conference opponents following their win over the Falcons (6-15).
"I'm proud of my girls for bouncing back after a tough five-set loss," ASU head coach
Chuck Waddington said.
The tripleheader night of volleyball action in Odessa started with UTPB winning in five sets over WBU (22-4).
Angelo State returns to Lone Star Conference action this weekend with home matches against Texas A&M-Commerce and Texas Woman's at the Junell Center. ASU hosts the Lions (13-4, 4-3 LSC) at 7 p.m. on Friday and then play the Pioneers (13-6, 5-2 LSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
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BOX SCORE: Angelo State 3, UTPB 1 (25-22, 25-13, 22-25, 25-22)
Angelo State responded from its setback earlier in the night with a four-set win over UTPB with both teams having 102 digs each and ASU limiting its errors to 26.
Maddie Huth led the Belles with 15 kills and hit .300 in the win, while
Haley Bianco had a career-high 29 digs for the Belles.
Maggi Jo Keffury paced the ASU offense with 44 assists with
Shelby Wilt adding 27 digs.
Kaelen Valdez and
Katie MacLeay had 15 and 13 digs, respectively.
ASU used a 4-2 streak to take a 7-4 early advantage which was capped by a Bartusiak kill and 18-11 on a Ritchey kill that extended a four-point swing. The Belles led 22-16 and then 22-19 before a kill from
Courtney Bartusiak, an ace from Bianco and a kill from
Katie MacLeay ended the fourth set at 25-22.
The Belles used extended runs in their win over the Falcons in their final match of the night, but also saw the Falcons use an eight-point swing to force a fourth set. The third and final set saw ASU go on a 7-0 streak to lead 14-7 after having went on a 10-0 second-set run to take a 24-10 lead before closing out the second set 25-13. The third set saw UTPB rallying to close to within one at 17-16 before ASU used two kills from Bond and an attacking error to extend the set advantage to 21-16 in a run that seemed to foreshadow a sweep. That was before UTPB ran off a 9-1 run to take a 25-22 third-set win and force a fourth set.
Huth had four kills on eight attacks in the first set for the Belles who trailed 14-10 after leading throughout the early portion of the opener. ASU, down four, went on a 7-0 run to take a 17-14 advantage with three kills from Bond highlighting the run. The Belles finished the set on a 4-3 run which was ended with a Keffury kill.
The Angelo State volleyball team dropped its first five-set match of the season with a 25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 23-25, 16-14 loss to Wayland Baptist in the first of two non-conference contests on Tuesday at the Falcon Dome.
The Belles (12-6) had an 82-77 advantage in digs in the match, but hurt themselves with 41 errors to WBU's 26 errors. The Pioneers (22-4) had a 17-6 block advantage in the match.
Courtney Bartusiak lead the Belles with 17 kills and a .464 hitting percentage, while
Arielle Bond had 15 kills on 43 attacks.
Shelby Wilt finished the match with 22 assists and 13 digs playing the at libero and setter positions and
Katie MacLeay led the team with 21 digs.
Maggi Jo Keffury finished with 36 assists and eight digs and
Maddie Huth had nine kills and five blocks.
Cerbi Ritchey added 12 kills and
Haley Bianco 16 digs.
Kaelen Valdez also had double-digit digs with 10.
ASU trailed 6-1 in the fifth set before it started chipping away. Huth had a kill and ace to take the set to 6-3 before a Bartusiak kill made it 9-6. Bond had a kill to cut the deficit to 10-9 before the match was tied at 11 on a WBU attacking error. Hawkins responded with a kill for WBU and then Bond tied it again before an attacking error on the Pioneers gave ASU its first and only lead of the set at 13-12. WBU went on a 4-1 run to close out the set and match and drop the Belles to 1-4 in neutral court matches this season.
Angelo State hit .233 in both the second and fourth sets but were limited to attacking percentages below .070 in each of its three set-losses. ASU led throughout the second set with its greatest margin coming at 16-11 before the Pioneers mounted a comeback and were within one at 21-20. ASU would take advantage of two WBU errors to extend its lead and would close the set at 25-22 on a kill from Bartusiak.
The fourth set was a similar story with the Belles leading 16-12 on a Huth kill before WBU evened the match at 18 and then took a two point advantage. Down 20-18, ASU went on a 5-0 run with the help of four errors before a kill from Ritchey ended the set at 25-23 and forced the match to five.
Claire Jacobsma and Chelsey Driskill led WBU with nine and eight block assists, respectively, while Shahala Hawkins had 14 kills and Jacobsma 13 kills. Ashlyn Westerman paced the Pioneers' attack with 51 assists and Grecia Rivera steadied the defense with 20 digs. WBU finished the match with a .193 team hitting percentage and limited ASU to a .134 percentage.
The Belles are now 2-1 in five-set matches after earning wins over Midwestern State and Arkansas Fort Smith earlier this season.
