By Wes Bloomquist  ||  wes.bloomquistSTEPHENVILLE – Mallory Blauser established a career-high 29 kills and finished with an absurd .509 attacking percentage to help lead the Angelo State volleyball team to a non-conference win over Newman on Saturday at the Wisdom Volleyball Gym.
The Belles (12-3) responded from a Lone Star Conference loss to Tarleton State on Friday with their sixth non-conference win of the season and move to 6-2 away from San Angelo. Along with Blauser's impressive attacking match, ASU senior
Shelby Wilt moved from libero to setter where she had a career-high 47 assists and also added 18 digs for the Belles. Wilt's previous high for assists was 30 in a match two seasons ago against Lewis University.
With Wilt at setter, junior defensive specialists
Katie MacLeay and
Haley Bianco stepped up by providing 21 and 12 digs, respectively. MacLeay had 10 digs in the third set where the Belles faced two match-points before taking the set 28-26 and then closing out the match in four.
"I was proud of Shelby for stepping into the setting role along with
Katie MacLeay handling the libero duties," ASU head coach
Chuck Waddington said. "Having both of them on the court for six rotations really stabilized us."
In the extended third set, the Belles and Jets were even at 14-14, 19-19 and 24-24 before Newman took a 25-24 lead on an ASU attacking error. Squared again at 25 on a
Brianna Sotello kill, NU took a one-point advantage to set up another match-point before a Wilt kill to tie it at 26. Two subsequent Newman errors ended the set at 28-26 for the Belles who would roll through the fourth set to win the match.
Blauser's previous career-high in kills was 21 in a five-set match earlier this season against Arkansas Fort Smith. She had six kills in the opening set before providing eight kills in the second and third sets and then seven in the closeout frame. She now has a team-leading 210 kills on the season.
"Mallory was the go-to we needed today," Waddington said. "She took big swings in big moments. We'll need more of that for sure."
Angelo State finished the match with a .251 attacking percentage as a team and held a 94-85 dig advantage over Newman.
Zoey Hanrahan added eight kills and three blocks, while fellow sophomore
Klohe Harrion provided six kills, six digs and five blocks – all of which were career highs.
"Klohe did a great job in the middle in her first significant action on the court this year," Waddington said.
Sotello also had an impressive attacking performance, finishing with a .545 attacking percentage and seven kills and
Cerbi Ritchey had six kills, three digs and two blocks.
Alexa Johnson had nine assists and three blocks and
Kelly Hasbrouck provided seven digs. The Belles had eight service aces in the match with MacLeay and Hasbrouck having three each and Wilt providing the other two.
Jarin Braithwait and Alexis Roecker led Newman with 11 kills each, while Anna Burton produced 10 digs and Lexi Kuharich had 17 digs. The Jets were limited to a .178 attacking percentage in the match. NU was back in action against Tarleton State following its match with the Belles.
Angelo State will return to action next weekend with a Friday night road match at Texas Woman's and then a 2 p.m. match on Saturday at Texas A&M-Commerce. The Belles finished the first half of LSC play with a 6-2 record which has them in second place in the conference standings going into the second half of conference play.Â
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