Monday, November 19, 2007 , Updated
Texas Wesleyan volleyball wins two, but loses regional final
TWU 3, Wayland Baptist 2
The Texas Wesleyan University volleyball team (31-15) took a 3-2 win over Wayland Baptist University (23-17) in the quarterfinals of the NAIA Region VI Tournament. The Lady Rams prevailed with scores of 30-23, 23-30, 26-30, 30-20, and 15-8.
Prior to the game, the NAIA announced the All-Region VI teams. Three Lady Rams were among those honored. Ashley Mock, who was named Red River Athletic Conference Libero of the Year last week, was a 1st-team All-Region selection along with teammate Elizabeth Meng. Sandra Ayala was named to the 2nd-team.
The Rams fell behind two games to one, but took a 30-26 win in game four to force a decisive set. In game five, the Lady Rams trailed until a kill from Erinn Miller gave them an 8-7 advantage. Texas Wesleyan then used three Wayland Baptist errors and four kills from Sandra Ayala to close out the match.
Miller had 21 kills for TWU while Liz Meng added 20, and Ayala had 17. Evoni Darling handed out 57 assists. Ashley Mock turned in 46 digs marking the second highest total in school history. Mock who set the school record at 51 earlier this season has three of the four 40+ dig matches in school history.
For Wayland Baptist, Analicia Estrada had 16 kills, and Hailey Clark and Desiree Luevano added 13 and 11, respectively. Staci Wilt tallied 47 assists, and Ashleah Richards had 35 digs.
TWU 3, Lubbock Christian 2
UT-Brownsville 3, TWU 0
The Texas Wesleyan University volleyball team (32-16) took a thrilling five-game win over 2nd-seeded Lubbock Christian University (30-8) in Saturday’s NAIA Region VI Semifinal, before falling to top-seeded UT-Brownsville (33-7).
The Lubbock Christian match was very even throughout. Texas Wesleyan took game-one 30-25, fell in game-two 18-30, took game three 30-24, and fell in game-four 19-30. With the fifth game tied at six, Texas Welseyan used a 6-1 run to take control and then cruised to a match-clinching 15-10 win.
Texas Wesleyan University upset Lubbock Christian 3-2 to advance to the championship of the NAIA Region VI Tournament: 30-25, 18-30, 30-24, 19-30, 15-10.
Liz Meng (17kils, 15 digs), Sandra Ayala (15 kills, 14 digs), and Erinn Miller (14kills, 13 digs) all posted double-doubles. Freshman setter Evoni Darling posted her first career triple-double with 10 kills, 16 digs, and 42 assists. Ashley Mock was also solid, scooping up 26 digs.
For Lubbock Christian, Suzanne Childress (16), Katie McGuire (14), Elissa Loynes (11), and Kelsey Odell (10) all had at least 10 kills with Rachel Sturyvesant handing out 51 assists, and Courtney Yonke tallying 34 digs.
That set up what has become a regular occurrence at the Region VI Tournament, an all Red River Athletic Conference final. Unfortunately for the Rams the match had the same result as the conference title game as UT-Brownsville prevailed 3-0.
The Scorpions won the title with scores of 30-20, 30-18, and 30-23, and have advanced to the school’s first NAIA National Tournament in any sport.
Ming had 12 kills, Darling had 33 assists, and Mock had 16 digs for the Lady Rams. For UTB, Talita Milasauskas had 12 kills and 12 digs while Jenny Ashley had 11 kills and 11 digs, Dianarah Bracero had 36 assists and 14 digs, and Claudia Alarcon had 10 kills.
Meng and Miller both earned All-Tournament honors for their performance.
Source: TWU
