Zias fall to Lady Buffs

CANYON, Texas — The West Texas A&M Lady Buffs got 16 kills and four aces from senior outside hitter Jessica Scherr Tuesday night and cruised to their 19th consecutive victory, a 30-16, 30-21, 30-21 Lone Star Conference South Division decision over Eastern New Mexico University.

WT (24-3, 6-0 South), ranked 23rd in NCAA Division II, also got 10 kills apiece from senior outside hitter Rachel Altman and freshman outside hitter Natalie Johnson. Scherr, Altman and Johnson each had only one attack error in the match.

The Zias (6-21, 1-5) played a little better than they did in a three-game loss to the Lady Buffs last week at Greyhound Arena, collecting 30 kills and 17 attack errors for the match.

WT led 12-8 in the first game, but with the score 22-15 the Lady Buffs ran off eight of the next nine points to close it out. ENMU then pulled even at 18-18 and 21-21 in the second game, before the Lady Buffs scored the final nine points — four coming on Zias errors.

WT scored the first two points in the third game and never relinquished the lead, although the Zias pared a 12-4 deficit to 13-9 with the help of two kills by Megan Kazakoff.

The Lady Buffs went on a 9-1 run at that point, fueled by five kills from Scherr, to build their biggest lead of the night at 22-10. ENMU could get no closer than seven points after that.

Junior outside hitter Jessie Macknicki led the Zias with eight kills, while Kazakoff finished with seven.