CANYON – Would anyone have wanted the NCAA Division II South Central Volleyball Championship to be settled any other way than with a final between Angelo State and West Texas A&M besides the teams that are no longer in town?

No is the correct answer, and it's what we've got at 7 p.m. tonight at the WTAMU Fieldhouse.

The Belles (25-9) and Lady Buffs (33-3) will meet for the second straight season in the regional final with the winner advancing to next week's NCAA DII Championship in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. ASU is competing for its first regional championship in school history, while WT is looking to claim its 13th.

"They are a talented team and are going to have a huge crowd on their side," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "We are going to have our backs to the wall from the first point to the last. We have to play with that 'every point matters' mentality and take advantage of every opportunity we have. We've been in this environment before and the stage is set for a great final."

Angelo State advanced to the regional final with an unbelievable five-set win over Colorado School of Mines on Friday, while the Lady Buffs swept Regis University to advance. The Belles faced match-point at 24-22 in the fourth set but battled back to force a fifth set. ASU, which is 4-1 in Canyon in the postseason this year, trailed the final set 11-6 at one point before battling back and earning an 18-16 win to advance.

"We never had a moment when we were giving up," said ASU senior Leah McWilliams, who returned from an injury that sidelined her since Oct. 15 with 12 kills against the Orediggers. "Our mantra throughout has been 'refuse to lose' and we could feel that on the court. No one was ready to go home."

Maddie Huth and Arielle Bond led the Belles on Friday with 20 kills each, while Shelby Wilt recorded 32 digs and Courtney Bartusiak had a career-high nine blocks. Huth leads the Belles with 511 kills (3.23 per set) this season, while Bond has 377 kills (3.14 per set). Huth was named the LSC Co-Offensive Player of the Year and has received postseason honors from the AVCA and Daktronics. She was joined on the AVCA first-team by setter Maggi Jo Keffury who has 1,415 assists this season. Keffury had 56 assists against CSM and matched her career-high with 22 digs. Wilt, who was an AVCA honorable mention selection, has a team-leading 612 digs (4.74 per set) this season and also leads the team with 35 aces. Keffury has added 32 aces and 345 digs.

Kaelen Valdez enters the final with 446 digs (3.60 per set) and 176 kills this season. Sophomore defensive specialists Katie MacLeay (404 digs) and Haley Bianco (374 digs) have helped ASU become the nation's best with a 20.88 digs per set average as a team, and are also dangerous on the serve. MacLeay has 33 aces with Bianco at 20 aces this season. Cerbi Ritchey has added 217 kills (1.94 per set) and 50 blocks, while Bartusiak has 215 kills to go along with 65 blocks in her freshman season. McWilliams has 166 kills (2.68 per set) and 19 blocks in 62 sets played this season.

Huth comes into the final with 1,170 career kills and 403 career blocks after recording her 23rd double-digit kill performance on Friday. Wilt has 1,845 career digs which is the all-time program record, while Valdez has 1,576 career digs which is third all-time behind Jennifer Glass's 1,603.

ASU is playing in its seventh regional tournament and is 7-7 all-time in NCAA postseason play. The Belles are 5-2 the past three seasons in NCAA play, including reaching last year's final in Denver, Colo. where it lost in four sets (11-25, 20-25, 25-17, 25-27) to WT.  

The Lady Buffs enter the regional final on a 27-match winning streak, including a perfect 21-0 record at "The Box" this season. WT has swept both of its regional matches with a quarterfinal sweep of Dallas Baptist on Thursday to go along with its semifinal win over the Rangers on Friday.

Halie Harton leads the Lady Buffs with 350 kills (2.80 per set), while Lauren Bevan has 347 kills and Laura Iwuchukwu has 328 kills. Iwuchukwu was named the LSC Defensive Player of the Year and leads the nation with 206 blocks. WT is the national leader in blocks as a team with 359.5 this season with Lexi Davis at 126 and Kameryn Hayes at 102. Lauren Britten leads WT with 528 digs (4.22 per set) with Harton adding 414 digs (3.31 per set). Iwuchukwu had 14 kills against Regis with Britten at 11 digs.

WT has advanced to 15 regional finals in program history and have won 12 of them. They are 16-0 when hosting regional tournaments and are 3-0 against ASU in NCAA postseason play. The Lady Buffs' last loss this season came on Sept. 14 against Florida Southern – the school Waddington was an assistant coach at before coming to Angelo State to lead the program's resurgence.