SAN ANGELO – The Belles close out their home regular season schedule this weekend as they continue their push towards the top spot in the LSC standings, with the conference tournament only two weeks away. The Belles take on rivals #25 West Texas A&M on Friday before hosting Eastern New Mexico on Saturday, a day in which the Belles will honor seven seniors on their roster.
The Belles are 19-3 overall on the season and 12-1 in conference play. They currently sit a half-game back of UT Tyler in the LSC standings, with the Patriots having played one more match. The Belles are also tied for second in the standings with West Texas A&M.
In the first regional rankings that came out earlier this week, the Belles were third in the region behind MSU Denver and Colorado School of Mines.
The Belles' offense enters the weekend second in the conference for hitting percentage, assists and kills, while defensively, they also rank second in opponent hitting percentage, opponent assists, opponent kills and blocks.
Baleigh Allen is third in the LSC with a .353 hitting percentage while teammate
Kailyn Gilbreath is fifth with a .336 percentage. Gilbreath is also tenth in the conference with 224 kills on the season and seventh in assists with 7.27 per set.
Allen also leads the conference with 1.16 blocks per set.
SCOUTING THE LADY BUFFS
West Texas A&M is 18-2 on the season and 12-1 in conference play, currently tied with the Belles for second in the LSC standings. Both their losses came to ranked opposition in back-to-back matches, losing to then-#3 Nebraska-Kearney before opening their conference slate with a loss to then-#25 UT Tyler. The Lady Buffs have not dropped a match since their loss to the Patriots on September 17
th.
The Belles are 13-15 against the Lady Buffs under head coach
Chuck Waddington, with the Lady Buffs handing the Belles their only two losses of the season this past spring, in which the Lady Buffs hit .204 and .330 against the Belles, the two best marks against Angelo State last season.
The Lady Buffs own the third-best defense in all of Division II with opponents only hitting .094 this season against the team from Canyon. They also featured in the first regional rankings, coming in at seventh.
The Lady Buffs offense is led by Torrey Miller's 264 kills while setters Sadie Snay and Blair Moreland both average over five assists per set. Defensively, libero Chandler Vogel is fourth in the LSC with 4.88 digs pet set while Marjani Stanfill leads the team with 54 blocks.
SCOUTING THE GREYHOUNDS
Eastern New Mexico is 6-15 on the season and 6-7 in conference play; they currently sit in a three-way tie for tenth place in the LSC standings, only needing one win from their final four matches to clinch a spot in the conference tournament.
Under Waddington, the Belles are 22-2 against the Greyhounds, including an 11-0 record in San Angelo.
The Greyhounds' offense is led by Jasmine Gannon's 229 kills, who also leads the team with 221 digs on the season.
After this weekend, the Belles are on the road for their final matches of the regular season next weekend against St. Mary's and St. Edward's.
