SAN ANGELO – Perennial regional and conference rivals will meet on the Stephens Arena court on Friday (Halloween) when the Angelo State volleyball team hosts No. 24-ranked West Texas A&M at 7 p.m. in a Lone Star Conference match which renews a series between the programs who have challenged each other in the past two NCAA Division II South Central Championship finals and the past four LSC Championship finals.   

The Belles (17-5, 9-4 LSC) are on a five-match winning streak and are 9-1 on their home court, while the Lady Buffs (25-3, 12-0 LSC) are on a 17-match winning streak which includes a 3-1 (25-22, 25-13, 19-25, 25-12) win over ASU in a Sept. 27 matchup in Canyon earlier this season. ASU is coming off a non-conference sweep of Texas-Permian Basin on Tuesday, while WT earned four non-conference wins over Dallas Baptist, Lubbock Christian, Oklahoma Baptist and Southwestern Oklahoma last weekend. The Lady Buffs are 16-1 away from Canyon this season and have not lost since being swept by Truman State back on Sept. 20.

ASU and WT are both regionally ranked with the Lady Buffs at No. 5 and the Belles at No. 9 in the initial poll which was released on Wednesday. WT has won the past two NCAA DII South Central Championships by beating the Belles in the finals. ASU's last win over WT came during the 2012 season in a regular-season matchup at the Junell Center.

"We have an opportunity on Friday to play one of the top teams in the country in our gym," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "It's a good chance for us and we have to be ready to compete. They always want to beat us and we'll have to go out there and want to beat them."

Angelo State will also host ENMU (12-13, 4-8 LSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday in a LSC match at the Junell Center.
 
Belle Roster Report
ASU's all-time digs leader in program history, Shelby Wilt had 41 digs during last weekend's road trip and 24 on Tuesday against the Falcons in the Belles' midweek match. Wilt leads the LSC with 5.18 digs per set this season and also has 20 aces. She now has 409 digs in her senior season and 2,271 in her career. She has recorded double-digit dig performances in 21 of the 22 matches this season with the only single-digit match being a nine-dig match at Tarleton State. Katie MacLeay is second on the team with 268 digs this season and is averaging 3.39 per set. She leads the Belles with 22 service aces after recording three aces on Tuesday to go along with six digs.

Alexa Johnson leads the Belles with 782 assists (11.33 per set) this season and established a new career high with 57 assists in the win over Texas A&M-Kingsville last Saturday. Her performance during the final road trip of the season earned her the second LSC Setter of the Week honor of the season and came on Tuesday when she went out and provided 45 assists and eight digs in the win over UTPB. Johnson has also supplied 160 digs and 50 kills from the setter position. A sophomore from Nebraska, Johnson is in her first season at ASU after transferring from Lamar University this season. She leads the Lone Star Conference with her 11.33 assists per set average through 69 sets played this season.

Brianna Sotello is coming off an 18 kill, nine-dig match against UTPB following last weekend where she recorded 20 kills and 21 digs in the win over St. Edward's before having 17 kills and 23 digs at Texas A&M-Kingsville. The 20 kills against the Hilltoppers and the 23 digs against the Javelinas are new career-highs for the freshman from San Antonio. Sotello now has 122 kills and 115 digs this season and five double-digit kill matches with a previous high of 15 coming at ENMU earlier this season. She had recorded five straight double-digit dig matches after not having one prior to the stretch of double-digit dig totals against A&M-Commerce (10), Cameron (12), Midwestern State (11), St. Edward's (23) and TAMUK (23). Mallory Blauser also had a strong weekend for the Belles, providing 29 kills (4.14 per set) last weekend and continues to lead ASU with 303 kills this season. She is coming off a 12 kill night against the Falcons where she also had two block assists. Blauser, a sophomore from Round Rock, has also provided 40 blocks this season and has 16 double-digit kill matches this season. With a .208 season attacking percentage, her 21-kill performance against the Javelinas last Saturday was the fourth match with 20-plus kills. Abbie Lynn enters this weekend with exactly 200 kills this season after providing five kills on Tuesday against UTPB. Lynn is averaging 2.87 kills per set this season with 10 double-digit kill performances and a season high of 18 coming in matches against Midwestern State and Texas Woman's. Blauser currently ranks four in the LSC with her 3.99 kills per set and Lynn is 10th in that statistical category.

Zoey Hanrahan led the Belles with five blocks in each match last weekend and also provided 17 kills on the final road trip of the season. She started this week with eight kills and four blocks against UTPB. Hanrahan, a sophomore from Pflugerville, leads ASU with 69 blocks this season and has also contributed 145 kills in her second season. She currently ranks 15th in blocks in per set (0.90) in the LSC. Hanrahan has provided three or more blocks in 15 matches this season with a high of six at Texas Woman's. Arielle Bond comes into this weekend's play with 99 kills this season and has 572 in her career, while Cerbi Ritchey has 70 kills this season and 293 in her career. Ritchey had nine kills last weekend, while Daeleigh Castile had five kills and eight digs against UTPB and now has 82 kills in her freshman season. Haley Bianco enters this weekend with 122 digs (2.26 per set) and seven service aces, while Klohe Harrion has added 28 kills and 17 blocks in her sophomore season.
 
West Texas A&M Lady Buff Report
Lauren Bevan enters this weekend leading the Lady Buffs and the LSC with 380 kills this season and is averaging 4.00 kills per set and is hitting at a .275 percentage. Kameryn Hayes has added 250 kills this season with a .317 attacking percentage, while Jessica Johnson has 170 kills and Sydney Harlan has 169 kills. WT is hitting .263 as a team through 28 matches this season with Hayes providing 703 assists and Kyli Schulz at 448 assists. Lauren Britten has 420 digs this season and is seventh in the LSC with 4.38 digs per set.

WT owns a 128-60 service aces advantage over its opponents this season and a 225-152 block advantage. The Lady Buffs have not lost since being swept by Truman back on Sept. 20. ASU and WT have played in the past four LSC Championship finals against each other and the past two NCAA Division II South Central Championship finals.

WT has maintained control over the rivalry against ASU with wins in each of the championship matches and own a 55-16 all-time advantage over the Belles. The Lady Buffs won all four of the matches against the Belles in the 2013 season, including a five-set thriller in the conference finals and a four-set battle in the regional finals. ASU's 2013 season came to an end in Canyon with the fourth loss. The Lady Buffs advanced to their second straight NCAA DII Championships where their season ended with a five-set loss to BYU-Hawaii after knocking off LIU-Post in the first round. WT finished its season with a 35-4 overall record, including going 16-0 in Lone Star Conference play. Jason Skoch is in his sixth season with the Lady Buffs as their head coach and has won three of the past four LSC Coach of the Year awards with Waddington taking the 2012 LSC Coach of the Year after leading the Belles to the conference title that season.
 
REGIONAL RANKINGS
The Angelo State volleyball team is ninth in the initial NCAA Division II South Central regional rankings which were posted on Wednesday.

The Belles (17-5) have advanced to the past three NCAA DII regional tournaments which is made up of the tournament winners of the Lone Star Conference, Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and the Heartland Conference who will each earn automatic qualifiers and then there will be five at-large bids given out to fill out the eight-team regional tournament. ASU maintains a 15-5 in-region record with two weeks remaining in the regular season.

"We have opportunities to move up in this poll if we take advantage of the teams we play in the next two week s," Waddington said. "Two of the teams are ranked ahead of us in the poll and that creates chances to move up."

The RMAC finds itself in the top four positions in the poll with Metro State (19-3, 17-1 in-region) leading the rankings, while Colorado Mesa (20-3, 17-2), Colorado School of Mines (20-2, 19-2) and Regis (14-8, 12-6) round out the top four. West Texas A&M is fifth in the poll with a 23-3 overall record and a 19-2 in-region record and Tarleton State (18-5, 18-4) is sixth. The Belles host WT at 7 p.m. on Friday and Tarleton State on Friday, Nov. 7 at the Junell Center.

Angelo State is currently on a five-match winning streak which includes a 3-1 win over St. Edward's (15-5, 12-5). The Hilltoppers are ranked No. 10 in the regional poll, while Arkansas-Fort Smith (20-4, 20-4) is seventh and Texas Woman's (16-7, 16-7) is eighth. The Belles dropped a five-set match earlier this season to UAFS and split their season series with the Pioneers.
 
LAST TIME AROUND
CANYON – The Angelo State volleyball team saw its nine-match winning streak end with a four-set Lone Star Conference loss (25-22, 25-13, 19-25, 25-12) to West Texas A&M on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the WTAMU Fieldhouse. The Belles (10-2, 5-1 LSC) were limited to a .148 attacking percentage in the match which was their first conference and road loss of the season, while WT (12-3, 5-0 LSC) finished with a .286 attacking percentage and had a 53-44 dig advantage.

"Our team had a good response to being challenged after the second set," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "We were our own worst enemy in the other sets. We had too many errors versus a disciplined team. We needed to have a more aggressive mindset."

Mallory Blauser led Angelo State with 12 kills, including four in the first set, and also had two blocks against the Lady Buffs who are now 6-2 at home this season and are on four-match winning streak. Shelby Wilt paced the ASU defense with 11 digs and Arielle Bond supplied four blocks and four kills. Alexa Johnson had four kills, four blocks and 32 assists from the setter position and Abbie Lynn and Zoey Hanrahan each provided seven kills as the Belles fell to 4-1 on the road. The Lady Buffs took the first set by three despite the Belles coming back from a seven-point deficit at 14-7 to make it 19-18 on a Blauser kill. WT would regain a three-point advantage at 23-20 on a Sydney Harlan kill before an errant Lady Buff set and a kill from Johnson had the set back to one-point at 23-22. The Lady Buffs closed out the set with two kills from Bevan to take the early advantage and carried the momentum over to the second set with a commanding 25-13 win. ASU was limited to a .100 attacking percentage in the second set and committed seven errors after having only two in the first set. WT had an absurd .538 attacking percentage in the second set.

Angelo State responded from its two-set deficit by taking a 25-19 third-set win over the Lady Buffs with a .231 attacking percentage and limiting itself to four errors. The Belles had a strong start to the set and led 10-6 on a Lynn kill and would go on a 6-0 run to take a 20-12 lead. The string of points was started on a WT error and also included kills from Johnson and Bond. WT was limited to a .051 attacking percentage in the third-set loss and committed 10 error which included the final point of the set. West Texas A&M senior Lauren Bevan recorded a match-high 22 kills and finished with a .500 attacking percentage to go along with her 10 digs against the Belles, while Sydney Harlan added 12 kills and Lauren Britten provided a team-high 15 digs. The Lady Buffs had an 8-7 block advantage over ASU with Jessica Johnson leading the way with five blocks and Cori Haley adding four.

The loss extended Angelo State's losing streak against the Lady Buffs in Canyon to 24 matches which dates back to the 1993 season. ASU topped WT in the 2012 season at the Junell Center to break up a 15-match overall losing streak to the Lady Buffs but have since lost the past seven matches which includes four postseason contests.