SAN ANGELO – West Texas A&M used 16 blocks and forced uncharacteristic Angelo State errors to earn a 3-1 Lone Star Conference win over the Belles on Saturday in an early-season match between two of the top conference teams at the Junell Center.

"They move really well and were working really hard against us," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "They're one of the top blocking teams in the country and they're always putting pressure on you. They force you to hit shots you don't typically hit, and we didn't do a good job of adjusting to it. We got tentative and it led to errors on our part."

The No. 7 Belles (11-2, 4-1 LSC) committed 30 errors in the match and saw their five-match winning streak and 24-match regular-season home winning streak end with the loss. No. 11 WT (14-3, 4-0 LSC) has now won eight consecutive matches.

"We needed to stay more composed and take care of our side of the net," ASU senior Kaelen Valdez said. "They're always a really good team and we didn't match their intensity on our side of the court. We needed to have more fight."

Valdez led the Belles with a career-high 29 digs, while Maddie Huth had a season-high 16 kills and three blocks. Leah McWilliams added 13 kills and six digs with Arielle Bond contributing 12 digs.

Maggi Jo Keffury led the offense with a season-high 55 assists and added six digs with Shelby Wilt steadying the defense with 17 digs. Katie MacLeay added 13 digs and Haley Bianco had five digs.

Angelo State was outblocked 16-7 in the match and were limited to a .154 hitting percentage against WT. The Belles hit .317 in the third set in which they won 25-20, but were held to a .000 in the fourth set.

"They were low error and we weren't," Waddington said. "We were giving them nine or 10 points in every set. Some of that was forced because of their blocking, but some of it wasn't. We just didn't give ourselves enough of a chance to win and didn't play with enough energy to win against a team at their level. That was the most disappointing thing for us."

Lexi Davis led the Lady Buffs with eight blocks, while Laura Iwuchukwu had five blocks and 11 kills. Lauren Bevan paced WT with 17 kills and a .319 hitting percentage and Halie Harton added 15 kills. Iwuchukwu leads the LSC with 108 blocks this season

Angelo State returns to action with a pair of midweek road matches at Texas Woman's and Texas A&M-Commerce this week. The Belles will play at 7 p.m. on Tuesday against the Pioneers and at 5 p.m. on Wednesday against the Lions.

"We just have to forget about this match and come back Monday in practice ready to work hard and correct some things that we didn't do today," Valdez said.

Notes: Huth now has 915 kills and 325 blocks in her career. The senior, who is a three-time LSC Offensive Player of the Week this season, had 30 blocks this weekend with 14 on Friday against Eastern New Mexico to go along with her 16 on Saturday. Huth is now 14th in program history in kills after passing Marci Sanders (1997-98) who had 912 in her career. She is also now seventh in program history after passing Chelsea Gibson (2009-12) who had 310 in her career.