LADY RAMS WIN THRILLER TO REACH REGION VI FINAL

November 17, 2007

LUBBOCK, TX:  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.

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.

Meng 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.