SAN ANGELO – The No. 12 Angelo State volleyball defeated the Colorado School of Mines in four sets (25-22, 25-18, 18-25, 26-24) on Friday night to advance to the NCAA South Central Regional Championship match against second seed Metro State.
The Belles climbed to 33-3 with Friday night's win and stamped its ticket to its second consecutive regional final match. This marks the fourth time in program history that the Belles have advanced to the regional final. The team also extended its home undefeated streak to 19-0 this season. Once again the ASU defense out blocked its opponents (11-9) and held the Orediggers to a .161 hitting percentage. With the elimination, CSM concludes its season with a 25-7 record.
"Preparation was the key," commented ASU Head Coach Chuck Waddington. "My staff, Ben Farmer and Ashley Davis, worked extremely hard to make sure our team was prepared for this match. When our kids have that information it makes us better. WE know what is going to happen and we can defend it better. Every time we have played this team it been the same style match, and always comes down to the wire. Like I said last night we have a resilient team and they are calm under pressure, they have been in these situations before and they come through. Tomorrow night I expect the same style match that will come down to the wire."
Recording a .326 clip for the match and marking her 6th match with at least 15 kills, Brianna Sotello led the attack. The junior chalked up a team leading 18 kills for the night. The San Antonio native also led the defense with a team most and career tying six total blocks as well as a team third eight digs.
Senior leader Mallory Blauser recorded her 14th double –double on the season as she turned in a team second 12 kills and 17 digs for the match. She also led the squad from the service line dropping in a pair of aces.
Mallory Davidson and Morgan Seaton anchored the Belles defense against CSM attack. Davidson led the team with a career second 27 digs on the night. This was her sixth match of the season with at least 20 digs. She also added an ace and team second four assists to her numbers. Seaton patrolled the net inking five total blocks. Offensively, she added a team third nine kills.
Continuing to distribute for ASU was Meghan Parker. The AVCA Region freshman of the Year selection turned in 38 assists for the night taking her grant total for the season to 1340. She tallied six digs to assist the Belles defensive efforts and fired in a single ace.
Also making big plays for Angelo State was Jenna Markey and Micheala Sifuentes. Markey came away from the match with a team third four blocks, while Sifuentes chalked a team third eight digs.
The Belles stated the match hot as they quickly threw five straight points on the board which included a Parker service ace. However, the Orediggers rallied and brought the score to an even seven. A kill by right side hitter Abbie Lynn followed by a CSM attack error placed the Belles back in the lead. With the score sitting at 16-14 in favor of the Belles, Seaton and Lynn hammered down kills to allow ASU to begin to pull away. After a small attempted rally by CSM which would bring the score to 23-21, the two would put the set away with another pair of kills.
In the second set ASU would once again come out firing early as Seaton and Lynn continued to add to their numbers with another pair of kills right out of the box. Mines would quickly answer taking a 4-3 lead; however Blauser would put a stop to their run with a monster kill. This set off a 9-2 run that also saw big swings from Sotello and Seaton as well as a big block from Tulani Titley and Sotello. After an Oredigger kill that temporarily interrupted the Belles run, Sotello got back after it rocketing in another kill. This was followed by several CSM errors and a Blauser kill which left the score sitting at 17-8. After the Belles pushed the lead to 24-18, Sotello dropped in a final kill to give the Belles a 2-0 set lead.
Despite taking a 5-1 lead in the third set, a Colorado School of Mines 11-2 run would help them to take a large lead and later on the set. Coming out of the break between the third and fourth set with serious determination to not allow mines to take them to a fifth set, the Belles jumped out to a 10-4 lead. ASU would continue to extend its lead, until with 18-12 on the board, the Orediggers would piece together a 8-1 that would place them within one of an even score. The two teams then traded points eventually bring the set to an even 24. A final kill from Sotello followed by an attack error would propel the Belles to the next round.
This will be the second time this season that ASU has faced the Metro State Roadrunners, with the first match going the distance and seeing the Belles victorious in five on the road. MSU holds a 2-4 advantage over ASU in the all-time series between the two. Saturday afternoon's match will take place at 3 p.m. in the Stephens Arena at the Junell Center and will feature the No. 1 seed versus the No. 2 seed. This match will also be broadcasted live and in high definition by RamTV (Suddenlink Channel 6 & 106HD).
