SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State volleyball team is set to play in the program's 17th Lone Star Conference Championships this week and will open against Eastern New Mexico at noon on Thursday in a quarterfinals match at the WTAMU Fieldhouse in Canyon.

The Belles (19-7) enter the postseason having won seven of their past nine matches and are 2-0 against the Zias (13-17) this season with a pair of sweeps. Other first-round matchups on Thursday include No. 2 Texas Woman's vs. No. 7 Cameron, No. 4 Tarleton State vs. No. 5 Texas A&M-Kingsville and No. 1 West Texas A&M vs. No. 8 Texas A&M-Commerce. The ASU-ENMU winner will advance to play at 5 p.m. on Friday against the TWU-Cameron in the semifinals. The championship final is set for 5 p.m. on Saturday.

"The conference tournament is going to be huge for us this year, especially if we want to carry on to regionals" ASU senior Shelby Wilt said. "Eastern is our first-round matchup and we can't overlook them. They are a very athletic team with some heavy arms on their team that can hit the ball really hard and really well. We just have to stay focused and I feel like we are going into it because we know how important it is for us to make the regional run."

ASU and ENMU have not met in the conference tournament since 1994 when ENMU swept in the Belles in the first round. The two programs played against each other in the 1993 tournament final with ENMU winning the title and also in the 1991 tournament championship match with Angelo State winning the tournament with a sweep over the Zias. Angelo State is 43-19 all-time against the Zias with the Belles taking the last 13 matches.

Angelo State has advanced to the past four LSC Volleyball Championship finals and enters this season's conference tournament with a 34-12 all-time record in the tournament. ASU has won six tournament championships and has made 11 finals appearances in its program history.
 
BELLE ROSTER REPORT
Mallory Blauser, Abbie Lynn and Brianna Sotello come into the conference tournament leading the Belles offensive attack. Blauser leads ASU with 341 kills this season and is averaging 3.79 kills per set, while Lynn has 238 kills and is averaging 2.74 per set. Sotello is coming off a career-high 24 kills last Friday in a five-set win over Tarleton State and has provided 182 kills this season. Sotello is averaging 3.25 kills per set and has also provided 189 digs this season. She has recorded double-digit kills in eight matches this season, including in six of the past seven matches. Lynn, a freshman from Amarillo, has provided 12 double-digit kill performances this season with a career-high 18 kills coming against Midwestern State and Texas Woman's and has a .234 attacking percentage this season. Blauser, a sophomore from Round Rock, is in her first season at ASU after transferring from the University of Cincinnati. She has recorded 17 double-digit kill performances this season and had a career-high with 29 kills against Newman in a non-conference match. She provided 13 kills for the Belles in the first match against ENMU and then seven two weeks ago against the Zias. Blauser has also provided 48 blocks this season with six matches with three or more blocks.

Shelby Wilt is the all-time digs leader in program history with 2,389 digs in her career. Wilt comes into this season's postseason with 527 digs for the Belles after playing the majority of the year from the libero position. She has recorded double-digit dig performances in 25 of 26 matches and has also provided 190 assists. The defense is also bolstered by Katie MacLeay, Alexa Johnson, Haley Bianco, Kelly Hasbrouck and Brooke Robertson. MacLeay enters the postseason with 327 digs and is averaging 3.44 digs per set this season. A junior from San Antonio, MacLeay has 1,109 digs in her three years at ASU. Bianco has added 757 digs in her career and has 137 digs this season, while Hasbrouck has 156 digs and Robertson has 121 digs in their freshman season.

Johnson, who is a two-time LSC Setter of the Week this season, leads the Belles with 962 assists and has also provided 213 digs. A sophomore from Nebraska, Johnson transferred to ASU this season from Lamar University. She had a season-high 60 assists in a five-set loss to West Texas A&M two weeks ago and has also provided 58 kills from her setter position.

Zoey Hanrahan and Daeleigh Castile lead the ASU block this season with Hanrahan at 87 blocks and Castile at 53 blocks in her freshman season. Hanrahan, a sophomore from Pflugerville, is averaging 0.94 blocks per set and has recorded three or more blocks in 18 matches this season. She has also supplied 175 kills for the Belles and leads the team with a .261 attacking percentage. Castile has 101 kills in her freshman season out of Arizona and also has 81 digs. Arielle Bond comes into the conference tournament with 108 kills this season and 581 in her career, while Cerbi Ritchey has 75 this season and 298 in her career. Harahan is approaching a career milestone with 93 total blocks in her career after having six as a freshman.

In matches against ENMU this season, Sotello leads the team with 24 kills and is averaging 4.00 kills per set and Blauser has 20 kills in the two matches. Johnson has provided 12.33 assists per set against the Zias and Wilt has 50 digs (8.33 per set). Hanrahan is averaging 1.17 blocks per set against the ENMU attack with nine total blocks and Lynn and Castile each have 13 combined kills in the two straight-set wins for ASU.
 
ENMU ZIAS REPORT
The Zias (13-17) enter the postseason after pulling a five-set upset of Texas Woman's last Saturday in Portales, New Mexico. The win over the Pioneers snapped a four-match losing streak for the team and came with Agatha Gibbons leading the way with 16 kills and Courtney Lawson and Andrea Augilar combining for 43 digs.

Lauren Frye leads the Zias this season with 318 kills and is averaging 2.86 kills per set, while Gibbons has 257 kills and Lindsey Barron is at 232 kills for the season. The team plays with split setter responsibilities with Kennedi Catano supplying 584 assists and Karra Day 538 assists this season. The block is led by Gibbons who has 122 blocks (1.09 per set) and Bree Anna Lucero who has 99 blocks.


PREVIOUS GAME REPORTS AGAINST ENMU

Belles extend winning streak to nine with sweep of Zias (Sept. 26)
PORTALES, N.M. – The Angelo State volleyball team extended its winning streak to nine matches with a Lone Star Conference sweep of Eastern New Mexico (25-17, 25-18, 25-22) on Friday at the Greyhound Arena with the Belles owning a 60-46 dig advantage and finishing with a .246 attacking percentage.

"It was a good win in a really loud and hostile environment," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "We battle well to overcome a big third set deficit. Our young players are having to grow up fast."

The Belles (10-1, 5-0 LSC) will now play at 2 p.m. on Saturday against rival West Texas A&M in Canyon at the WTAMU Fieldhouse in a matchup of the previous two conference champions. The Lady Buffs (11-3, 4-0 LSC) are coming off a sweep of Tarleton State on Friday. ENMU fell to 5-6 overall and to 1-3 in conference play with the loss and will play the TexAnns on Saturday.   

Brianna Sotello led Angelo State with a career-high 15 kills, while Mallory Blauser recorded 13 kills and had three blocks. Shelby Wilt led the Belles with 16 digs and contributed four assists and Alexa Johnson provided 10 digs to go along with her 38 assists from the setter position.

Daeleigh Castile had a career-high .538 hitting percentage and finished the night with seven kills and a team-leading four blocks, while Abbie Lynn had six kills and three blocks. ASU had a 9-8 block advantage in the match and limited ENMU to a .069 attacking percentage.

Lindsey Barron led ENMU with seven kills and Lindsay Bost had 20 kills in the Zia effort.
 
Belles bounce back with LSC sweep of Zias (Nov. 1)
SAN ANGELO – Angelo State senior Shelby Wilt record 34 digs and sophomore Zoey Hanrahan contributed six block assists to help lead the Angelo State volleyball team to a Lone Star Conference sweep of Eastern New Mexico on Saturday at the Junell Center.

The Belles (18-6, 10-4 LSC) improved to 10-2 on their home court after bouncing back from Friday's five-set loss to No. 24-ranked West Texas A&M by owning a 9-3 block advantage and limiting themselves to only 17 errors in the match. ASU earned a season-sweep of ENMU with the win after also taking a three-set win over the Zias back on Sept. 26 in Portales, New Mexico.

"It was a question of who was going to have a better bounce back today," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "Eastern had a tough loss last night at Tarleton and we had a tough five-set loss. We all agreed before the match that it would be a challenge for us because of the emotion of last night's loss, so we had to be really focused on our jobs to get back on track. I felt like we did a great job of handling what ENMU was trying to do against us and also overcoming the emotional loss from last night."

Wilt established a new season-high in a three-set match with her 34 digs and now has 479 digs this season and 2,341 in her career. Brianna Sotello continued her strong play with nine kills and eight digs, while Abbie Lynn , Hanrahan and Mallory Blauser each had seven kills for the Belles. Daeleigh Castile led ASU with a .417 attacking percentage and finished the match with six kills, four digs and two service aces. Alexa Johnson led the offensive attack from the setter position with 36 assists (12 per set) and also had seven digs and a kill. Hanrahan leads ASU with 82 blocks this season, while Blauser tops the team with 333 kills and Lynn has 218 kills. Sotello has emerged the past three weeks with 88 kills and 113 digs in the past eight matches.