SAN ANGELO, Texas - Angelo State volleyball extend its winning streak to four with a hard fought sweep (26-24, 25-21, 25-19) over Texas Women's on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 17.
ASU battled to improve to 19-4 overall and 8-1 in the Lone Star Conference. This was the Belles fourth consecutive sweep and 13th for the year. Texas Women's University dropped to 15-5, 6-3 LSC after today's loss.
"It was a tough match and Texas Women's is a really talented team," said head coach Chuck Waddington. "They can hurt you in a lot of ways. Their outsides are talented, their middles are really effective at scoring and they have a nice setter too. I liked that we responded to that challenge and we played well"
The ASU attack saw multiple contributors today, with Mallory Blauser leading the way with 18 kills, eight digs, one ace, and a .415 clip. This was her ninth match with at least 15 kills and she has now chalked up 312 kills on the season. Abbie Lynn followed suit with 13 kills (ninth on the season), 5 digs and a .400 hitting percentage. Rounding out the offensive leaders, Morgan Seaton once again made major contributions to the offense tallying double digit kills (10) in her second match this week. This brought her to a .476 clip on the day.
Brianna Sotello showed her adversity leading the defense with 20 digs and two total blocks. This marked a new season high in digs per match for the sophomore. She also contributed seven kills to the offense. Senior Katie MacLeay racked up 15 digs for the day, bringing her 2015 total to 455. The libero has hit double digit digs in all but two of her matches this year.
Dishing out the ball for the Belles was setter Maggi Jo Keffury. She added 48 assists to her 923 season total. The senior helped the ASU defense out with 11 digs.
It was a fight from the first serve, with Belles and Pioneers trading points. Down 4-3, TWU kicked off a 4-0 run which was its longest run of the set. Sotello would get the Belles back on track with a kill shot followed by a service aces bring them within two of the lead. ASU would remain just behind the opposition until a Seaton kill would bring them even at 19. The Belles tried to pull away several times with a pair of Lynn kills, but the pioneers stayed persistent continuously bringing the score back to even. At 24-24 the Belles needed two to take the set, and it saw answers with kills from Blauser and Seaton. ASU moved on to the second set with a 26-24 set win.
Once again it would be a battle through the second set, with Angelo State seeing key plays by Lynn, Sotello, Blauser and Alyssa Orr. Down by five with the score 18-13, a Lynn kill sparked a 12-3 run. During the come from behind run sophomore Brooke Robertson and senior Keffury both chimed in with service aces while Blauser, Lynn, and Seaton added kills. ASU would take a 2-0 set lead into the break with a 25-21 second set.
In third set the Belles would only relinquish the lead once allowing TWU to take a 3-1 lead. A service ace from Blauser and a second from Robertson accompanied by kills from Lynn, Seaton and Zoey Hanrahan would bring the score to 23-17 in favor of the Belles. The Pioneers tried to get back in the match with a pair of kills but Blauser fired in another kill to return the ball to ASU. Robertson's serve would cause a TWU error and a set score of 25-19, the Belles would advance to the win column with the sweep.
The Belles hit the road to Stephenville to take on Tarleton State at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21 followed by another pair of matches on Friday, Oct. 23 to face Dallas Baptist (3 p.m.) and St. Mary's (6 p.m.) in San Antonio.
ASU Volleyball vs Texas Woman's 17Oct15 - Images by Angelo State University
