DENTON, Texas - Angelo State volleyball went the distance in Denton Tuesday night earning a five set win (20-25, 25-19, 15-25, 25-14, 15-11) over Texas Woman's University.
Wrapping up its lengthy road tour the Belles improve to 25-5, 11-2 LSC with tonight's victory. This is the team's sixth win in a row, with all six matches taking place away from home. The Pioneers slide to 20-6, 9-4 LSC with the defeat.
"Tonight was a tough back and forth battle between two really good teams," said volleyball head coach Chuck Waddington. "We showed some great mental toughness winning sets four and five."
Leading the offensive effort, Mallory Blauser recorded a season high 26 kills for a .222 hitting percentage on the night. She now has 376 kills on the year and has tallied double digit kills in the last three matches. This was also her fifth match with at least 20 kills. The junior also added three total blocks to her numbers.
Brianna Sotello continued to contribute on both sides of the ball chalking up her 17th double-double for the year with 13 kills and 12 digs. She remains the team leader in kills with 397 for the season. The sophomore also added a service ace and three blocks to her totals for the match. Fellow Sophomore Abbie Lynn rounded out the attack with 11 kills and a .206 clip.
Distributing for the Belles once again was Maggi Jo Keffury. The senior tallied 56 assist for her eighth match with at least 50. She also racked up a team high 19 digs for her 14th double-double of the season.
Anchoring the defense was senior Katie MacLeay and sophomore Morgan Seaton. Macleay accumulated 18 digs on the night which took her 576 on the 2015 season. Seaton added a team high five total blocks to the defensive efforts. This was the middle blocker's 12th match with at least three total blocks. She also aided the ASU offense with 8 kills.
After coming up short in the first set, Morgan Seaton and Blauser kicked ASU off with a pair of kills right out of the gate. The Belles carried the momentum with a 6-2 run that would give them an 8-3 lead. After the Pioneers battled back to bring it within three, 16-13, Morgan Seaton would once again jump start a 7-2 run with a kill. This would include key kills from Sotello and Taylor Lee Seaton, as well as a service ace from Mallory Davidson. With the score 22-19 in favor of ASU, a TWU attack error along with a pair of Blauser kills gave the Belles the set win and tie the match at 1-1.
TWU came out of intermission lining up several runs that would off the Belles and give them the third set and the lead once again. ASU returned in the fourth determined, and the Belles lined up an 11-3 run that saw kills from Lynn and Blauser and a service ace from freshman Micheala Sifuentes. Another lengthy 8-1 run midway through the set, that included a block from Morgan Seaton and Blauser, would give them a 24-11 lead. An untimely error from the Pioneers would seal the deal and gave ASU the fourth set 25-14. With the match now tied at 2-2 the Belles would enter a fifth set for the sixth time this season.
Tied at 2-2 in the fifth set, a Blauser kill was followed up by a pair of consecutive blocks from Sotello and Morgan Seaton that gave Angelo State a 5-2 lead. Then with a 7-3 lead, another big block that was executed by Sotello and Taylor Lee Seaton put the Belles up by five. Finally, with the Belles needing only a single point to take the match victory, TWU would donate a service error to push the score to 15-11 which gave ASU the match victory.
The Belles return to the Junnell Center to take on Texas A&M – Kingsville for its annual senior day match on Friday, November 6 at 6 p.m.
