CANYON – The Angelo State volleyball team will play Colorado School of Mines at 5 p.m. on Friday in the NCAA Division II South Central Championship semifinals at the WTAMU Fieldhouse after both teams earned quarterfinal sweeps to advance.

The No. 20-ranked Belles (24-9) and No. 16 Orediggers (25-6) have not played each other this season and will be followed by West Texas A&M and Regis University in the other semifinal match. The two winners will meet at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the regional final.

CSM, which earned a 25-16, 25-15, 25-22 victory over Western New Mexico on Thursday, won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular-season championship with a 17-2 conference record before falling to Adams State in the semifinals of the RMAC tournament. The Orediggers are 2-0 against Lone Star Conference opponents this season with sweeps of Texas Woman's and Tarleton State earlier this season. They come into the semifinal match against the Belles with 15.11 kills per set and a .244 team hitting percentage and have limited opponents to a .172 percentage.

"Mines is an exceptionally strong offensive team," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "They can score from any position on the court. They have a great setter and some really nice attackers in the middle and on the right. They have great ball control and play strong on defense. They're going to be a really tough matchup for us."

Melanie Wannamaker and Danielle Johnson-Hazlewood lead the Oredigger offensive attack with Wannamaker at 501 kills (4.47 per set) and Johnson-Hazlewood at 1,440 assists (12.86 per set). Alanna Winfield has added 409 kills (3.65 per set) and Hannah Marqheim leading the defense with 519 digs (4.63 per set). CSM has five players on its roster from Texas with Johnson-Hazlewood (Cypress), Winfield (Houston), Wannamaker (Kingwood), Taryn Huber (Austin) and Cassie Vick (Georgetown).

Angelo State, which is playing in its seventh regional tournament in program history, swept its way through the quarterfinals for the second straight season with a near flawless match against Texas Woman's on Thursday. The Belles, who advanced to the regional finals last season, are 3-0 against RMAC teams this season with wins over Colorado State-Pueblo, Colorado Mesa and Metro State.

"I think the key for us in any match is our serving and passing," Waddington said. "It's going to be tough to get them (CSM) out of system, but if we're able to do that I think we can be successful in what we're trying to accomplish."

Maddie Huth enters the regional semifinal match after an all-tournament performance two weeks ago in the LSC Championships and a senior season where she earned LSC Co-Offensive Player of the Year. Huth, who was named to the Daktronics South Central first team and earned AVCA All-South Central honors for the second straight season, leads the Belles with 393 kills (3.20 per set) and 127 blocks this season after providing a season-high 22 kills against West Texas A&M in the finals of the LSC tournament.

She is playing in her third regional tournament and has 1,150 career kills and 399 career blocks. The Colony native is currently seventh in program history in kills and third all-time in blocks and is a reigning all-American.

Kaelen Valdez is also playing in her third NCAA DII tournament and is third all-time in program history with 1,573 digs and 12th in program history with 1,024 kills. Valdez needs only 30 digs to match Jennifer Glass's 1,603 digs which was the program record before Shelby Wilt surpassed her for the all-time record this season. Valdez went over 1,000 kills for her career at the conference tournament and was named to the all-tournament team after having 28 digs and 13 kills in the finals against WT. She has 443 digs this season (3.80 per set) and 176 kills for the Belles.

Wilt leads the Belles with 580 digs (4.68 per set) and is the program's all-time digs leader with 1,802 digs in her first three seasons at ASU. The junior from Dalhart leads ASU with 34 aces after having three on Thursday. She was named to the all-tournament team after providing 61 digs in the three LSC tournament matches after being named to the LSC second-team for her production throughout the season. Wilt, who was named to the Daktronics South Central second team, has three years of experience playing in the NCAA regional tournament along with Valdez and Huth.

Maggi Jo Keffury earned LSC first-team honors in her first season at ASU and entered the regional tournament with 1,325 assists (11.23 per set) and 314 digs for the Belles. She provided 34 assists in the win over TWU on Thursday and also had nine digs. Keffury has NCAA tournament experience playing for New Mexico State last season before transferring to Angelo State this season. She ranks 16th in the nation with her 11.23 assist per set. An Arroyo Grande, Calif. native, she was named the LSC Setter of the Week five times this season and established a career-high with 59 assists in the finals against West Texas A&M.  She has seven matches this season where she had 50-plus assist performances.

Arielle Bond was named to the LSC second-team in her sophomore season and lead ASU with 12 kills on Thursday. She has with 357 kills (3.10 per set) this year. An El Paso native, Bond has also provided 45 blocks and 70 digs from the outside hitter position. She had 13 kills in the LSC finals against WT after providing 11 against TWU in the semifinals. She had a season-high 24 kills against Midwestern State on Sept. 20 and has 427 kills in her two years at ASU.  

MacLeay and Haley Bianco have turned in strong sophomore seasons at the defensive specialist positions and enter the semifinal match with 744 digs this season after both players had six digs on Thursday. Bianco, who has 359 digs this season, is coming off a 22-dig performance against WT in the finals after supplying 17 digs in the semifinals against Texas Woman's in the conference tournament. The Austin native has 18 double-digit dig performances this season, including a career-high 29 in a non-conference match earlier this season against Texas-Permian Basin. She has also provided 19 aces this season and 42 kills.

MacLeay, who has 22 double-digit dig performances this season, is third on the team with 385 digs (3.13 per set) this season and has 751 digs in her career. Fellow sophomore Kailyn Troxell has 44 kills and 16 blocks.

Courtney Bartusiak, Cerbi Ritchey, Zoey Hanrahan and Klohe Harrion will be playing in their first NCAA tournament. Ritchey, who was redshirted last season, has 213 kills this season (1.99 per set) and 47 blocks. Bartusiak, a true freshman from Colorado, is fourth on the team with 207 kills and is second on the team with a .256 hitting percentage and 56 blocks. Leah McWilliams has missed the second half of the season with an injury, but has 154 kills (2.66 per set) and 16 blocks in her senior season. Hanrahan has 37 kills this season, including six kills in the first round of the LSC tournament against Midwestern State.

Belle Single-Match Highs
Blocks: 8 (2- 6) Maddie Huth vs. Southwest Minn. St. (Sep 14, 2013 in Denver, CO)
Attacking Percentage: .667 (13- 1-18) Courtney Bartusiak vs. CSU-Pueblo (Sep 06, 2013)
Kills 3-Set: 16 (16- 3-34) Leah McWilliams vs. Cameron (Sep 21, 2013)
Kills 4-Set: 16 (16-4-33) Maddie Huth vs. A&M-Commerce and West Texas A&M
Kills 5-Set: 24 (24- 5-55) Arielle Bond vs. Midwestern State (Sep 20, 2013)
Assists: 59 (5s) Maggi Jo Keffury vs. West Texas A&M (Nov. 23)
Digs: 32 (5s) Shelby Wilt vs. A&M-Commerce (Oct. 18, 2013)
Aces: 5 –  Haley Bianco vs. Eastern New Mexico (Nov. 9, 2013)