SAN ANGELO – The No. 12 Angelo State volleyball swept its way past Texas A&M –Kingsville (25-22, 25-19, 25-21) in the quarterfinals of the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament on Thursday evening.
The Belles improved to 32-3 with Thursday's victory and will move on to the semifinal round where it will face the Colorado School of Mines. Angelo State's solid defense held TAMUK to a .033 clip for the night while out blocking the Javelinas 9-6. With the loss Texas A&M – Kingsville concludes its season with a 26-10 season.
"I am really proud of how the team stayed resilient and stayed pretty calm," commented ASU Head Coach Chuck Waddington. "We have had really good leadership on the court and their ability to keep the team calm and weather the storm is something that we have had all year long."
Leading the Belles attack was Mallory Blauser. The senior leader chalked her 14th consecutive double-digit kill match turning in a total of 16 kills for the night. This also marked her 13th match with at least 15 kills. She also recorded a .419 attack percentage against TAMUK. Defensively, the Round Rock native tallied a team second four blocks and nine digs.
Brianna Sotello, Morgan Seaton and Mallory Davidson headed the defensive efforts for the Belles. Sotello recorded a team most 13 digs and added a pair of blocks to her defensive numbers. She assisted the offense with a team third six kills. Seaton led the squad along the net with a team high five total blocks. She also recorded a team second seven kills from the middle blocker position. Davidson rounded out the group with a team third eight digs.
Meghan Parker continued to dish out the rock for ASU, as she recorded 24 assists for the night. This propelled the freshman over the 1300 assist mark for the season as she now has a total of 1302. She added an ace from the service line and five digs to her total numbers.
Tulani Titley and Micheala Sifuentes added great support for the Belles. Titley turned in a team third three block performance for the Belles and is now one total block away from marking 80 on the season. Sifuentes marked a team second eight assists for the match.
The Javelinas started the match with an early 5-1 run as they climbed to a 10-5 lead over the Belles. ASU would continue to trail until, down 17-13, Blauser slammed in two consecutive kills to start a 6-0 run to get the Belles back on track an in the lead. After a Javelina kill, Blauser added another pair of kills followed by a Davidson ace to push the team's lead to 22-18. Blauser returned to fire in the final kill of the set and give Angelo State the 1-0 set lead.
A big block from Seaton and Blauser kicked off the second set, but TAMUK would answer placing three straight on the board. The Belles would bring the score to even another three times before a Javelina attack error followed by a Seaton kill place the Belles back in front, 12-11. ASU would not relinquish the lead and would cap the set with an 8-3 run.
In the final set ASU came out firing on all cylinders, as it put together an 8-0 run led by Seaton, Blauser and Parker to open the set. The hogs returned fire with a lengthy 7-1 run of its own that would bring the score back to a close 11-9. TAMUK would continue to chip away at the Belles lead tying it at 13 all. Parker would set up Titley, who would follow through with a timely kill that would get the Belles rolling again. With a 24-21 lead, Sotello rocketed in the final kill that closed out the match and sent the Belles to the win column.
Friday night's match will mark the second consecutive year that ASU has faced the Orediggers in the semifinal round. In the two team's last meeting in the 2015 NCAA South Central Regional Semifinal match, Angelo State went the distance downing CSM in five sets. The Orediggers lead the all-time series with the Belles 3-2-1.
