BOX SCORE: Angelo State 3, Midwestern State 1 (22-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-7)

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CANYON – A first set loss quickly turned into a 3-1 win for the Angelo State volleyball team against Midwestern State on Thursday in the opening match of the Lone Star Conference Volleyball Championship at the WTAMU Fieldhouse.

The Belles (22-8) advance to the LSC Championship's semifinals where they'll play Texas Woman's at 5 p.m. with the winner advancing to Saturday's 2 p.m. title match. ASU, which overcame its slow start to the match with a dominate performance in proceeding three sets, has now advanced to the semifinal round the past five seasons. The Pioneers swept Texas A&M-Kingsville in the second match of the tournament to set up a semifinal matchup between ASU and TWU for the second straight season.

"The biggest thing we did to get back on track was serve a lot tougher," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "Katie MacLeay and Shelby Wilt started serving bullets and the rest of our team started putting pressure on as well. We kept them off balance and got back to what we do well. Service pressure was the difference for us."
Maddie Huth led the Belles with 15 kills and a .379 hitting percentage, while Arielle Bond had 14 kills and hit .278. Huth also added three solo blocks and five block assists for ASU which had a 10-8 block advantage over the Mustangs. Maggi Jo Keffury orchestrated the offense with 49 assists and helped the defensive effort with 10 digs. Cerbi Ritchey had 10 kills with Zoey Hanrahan adding six.

BELLE QUOTES Maggi Jo Keffury on the Belles responding from the first-set loss: "I think we stepped on the gas and kept our serving tough. We put pressure on them with our serving and our hitting and didn't let up." Haley Bianco on the Belles responding from the first-set loss: "We did a great job of stepping up our intensity. In the first set they were playing well, but we improved in every aspect from serving to passing the rest of the match to get the win." Cerbi Ritchey on the Belles' win over Midwestern State: "We applied pressure to them after starting out slow. We fought back to make them fold." Kaelen Valdez on the Belles' coming back from dropping the first-set against MSU: "We had a huge wakeup call there. We knew they weren't going to lay down, but we played complacent in that first game. We started putting pressure on them with stronger serving and better passes. That's a good formula for us to stick to." Shelby Wilt on the win over MSU on Thursday: "We started out super slow, but we picked it and started playing a lot better. We were more consistent starting in the second set and then finished really strong." Katie MacLeay on the Belles response and what they'll need to do in the semifinals: "We started serving and passing a lot more consistently. We also started scrapping like the team we have been all season. We have to start out better tomorrow and put the ball away when we have opportunities."

Angelo State finished the match with a season-high seven service aces, including three from Wilt and two each from MacLeay and Keffury. The ASU defense had five players in double-digits in digs with Wilt leading the way with 15 digs, MacLeay providing 13, Kaelen Valdez adding 11 and Haley Bianco joining Keffury with 10 digs. Valdez also had nine kills in teh win. ASU had a 67-60 dig advantage and limited MSU to a .080 hitting percentage with its blocking and dig proficiency.

The Belles struggled from the start of the first set and trailed 18-9 before staging a comeback to trim the deficit to as close as 24-22. MSU closed out the set on the next point though with a Lauren Quijano kill to put ASU in a 1-0 hole. The Belles responded in the second set though, going on a 4-0 run to take a 10-6 advantage with the assistance of two errors and a Wilt ace. ASU pushed its lead to 21-15 on another Wilt ace and back-to-back kills from Valdez and Huth gave the Belles a 25-16 second-set win.

ASU never trailed in the third set and commanded the set from the start. The Belles were out to an 8-1 lead with an ace from MacLeay, a pair of kills from Bond and kills from Valdez and Huth. MSU would close to within two at 13-11, but ASU extended the advantage to 17-12 with a run that was capped by a Huth kill. ASU would not trail in the fourth set either, dominating the set by staking itself to a 15-3 lead and running away with the match which started out slow.

Nicole Marzik led the Mustangs with 10 kills, while Casey Fletcher had 19 digs and Madelyn Johnson added 16 digs. MSU committed 26 attacking errors in its final game of the season. The Mustangs finish the year with a 17-13 record.