11/3/2018 | Women’s Volleyball | Box Score
PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico volleyball team battled hard in its fourth consecutive five-set match, but the short-handed Hounds ultimately fell 3-2 (25-16, 21-25, 25-11, 19-25, 12-15) to Texas Woman’s in their regular season finale Saturday afternoon at Greyhound Arena.
In the opening set, the Pioneers (18-12, 10-10 Lone Star Conference) jumped out to an early lead by scoring the first four points. Eastern (9-19, 7-13 LSC) battled back, scoring seven of the next 11 points off a strong Jasmine Gannon kill that landed just inside the back line and a Julie Tucker kill that split a pair of blockers. TWU scored the next the next two points before the Hounds strung together one of their best runs of the season.
Eastern rattled off 10 straight points that featured a pair of Kaitlyn Kluna service aces and a big Christelle Kialanda solo block, giving the Hounds the 17-10 advantage. The Pioneers narrowed the Greyhounds lead to as little as four, but the Hounds kept pushing back the advantage to six. While holding the 22-16 edge, Eastern rattled off the final three points on a Desiray Anderson and Gannon assisted block and a Rae Sapiga service ace that set up game point, which ultimately led the 25-16 set one win.
The Hounds and Pioneers traded blows early in the second set. A pair of kills by Anderson, and a kill each by Kialanda and Gannon gave Eastern a slight 6-5 edge before Texas Woman’s rallied by scoring five of the next six points to reclaim the 10-7 advantage. The Greyhounds narrowed the TWU lead back down to one at 10-9, but the Pioneers retaliated by scoring seven of the next nine points to take their largest lead at 17-11, forcing an ENMU timeout.
Coming out of the break, a kill by Anderson and a pair of Sapiga service aces started a four-point run to narrow the deficit to 17-15 to force the Pioneers to call their first timeout of the set. Eastern continued its massive run as two powerful kills by Gannon and Julie Tucker tied the set up at 17-all, which led TWU to call its final timeout. The timeout didn’t stop the run as another Sapiga service ace continued the streak followed by a Bresnahan kill, making it a 19-17 Hounds lead. Texas Woman’s strung together five unanswered to take back a 22-19 edge, but back-to-back kills by Gannon and Tucker pulled the Hounds back to within one. However, the Pioneers closed out the set with three consecutive points to hand Eastern a 25-21 set two defeat.
To open the third set, the Greyhounds jumped out to an early five-point advantage off kills by Kialanda and Jaedynn Devoux, a Kluna service ace, and an assisted block by Anderson and Tucker to make it 8-3. After a 3-1 run brought the Pioneers back to within three at 9-6, the Hounds scored six unanswered behind three Alba Ontiveros service aces to claim a 15-6 lead.
After trading the next eight points to bring the score to 19-10, Eastern ended the set with another strong run, scoring six of the last seven points off a strong kill by Kialanda down the middle followed by two of her own service aces to set up game point. Anderson finished off the set on a kill to give Eastern the 2-1 advantage in the match with a 25-11 set three victory.
ENMU jumped out to the early 4-1 edge in set four off a Gannon kill, a Rebekah Spencer service ace and an assisted block by Anderson and Kialanda but the Pioneers battled back with a 5-1 run to retake a 6-5 advantage. Later in the set, the Hounds rallied back to reclaim the lead off another Kluna service ace to make it 10-9, but five consecutive points by TWU made it a 14-10 Pioneers advantage.
The Hounds strung together a strong rally as a 6-2 run capped off on a kill by Lauryn Bresnahan tied the set back up at 16-all. After ENMU reclaimed the lead at 18-17, Texas Woman’s closed out the set with an 8-1 run to win the fourth set 25-19 and force a fifth set.
The Pioneers opened set five by scoring four of the first five points to take the early 4-1 edge. TWU expanded its lead to 10-3 before the Hounds fought back with a 6-1 run thanks to kills by Bresnahan and Devoux as well as Tucker and Devoux assisted block and a Kialanda solo block to make it only an 11-9 deficit. The Hounds would eventually cut the deficit down to one on an assisted block by Anderson and Kialanda to make it 13-12, but the Pioneers tallied the final two points of the set to make it a 15-12 set win for the Pioneers.
Gannon led the offensive attack with 12 kills while also picking up a double-double with 12 digs. Kluna led the passing attack with 21 assists to go with 14 digs.
Defensively, Ontiveros finished with a team-high 24 digs and Kialanda finished with a career-high seven blocks.
Kluna and Sapiga each finished the match with a career-high four service aces while Ontiveros tied her career-high with three aces.
For the third match in the row, the Hounds finished with 10 or more service aces, recording a season-high 14, topping the previous best of 12 set in last week’s five-set win over Texas A&M-Kingsville. It was the most service aces Eastern has recorded in a match since tallying 16 in a 3-2 win against UT-Permian Basin back on Sept. 23, 2006.
After today’s match, Eastern New Mexico honored its four seniors, Anderson, Kluna, Ontiveros, and Jennifer Martinez, who all played in their final matches at Greyhound Arena.
The Greyhounds will now wait to see if they qualified for the Lone Star Conference Tournament. The Hounds currently hold the No. 8 spot and can lock up the spot with a Western New Mexico loss to Angelo State tonight.
