Division-leading Lady Buffs defeat Zias

PORTALES — The West Texas A&M volleyball team came in with a seven-match winning streak while Eastern New Mexico University was on an eight-match skid.

Recent form held true Tuesday night in Greyhound Arena, as the Lady Buffs took a 30-20, 30-21, 27-30, 30-14 victory over the Zias in a Lone Star Conference South Division match.

Sophomores Natalie Johnson and Melissa Harper came out firing away in the first game with eight and seven kills, respectively, as division-leading WT (17-5, 6-0 South) controlled play.

Switching up lineups for Game 2, Lady Buffs coach Tony Graystone let Johnson and Harper take a rest. But WT didn’t skip a beat as freshmen Jessica Tuttle and Jamie Lakatos registered five kills apiece.

“We just wanted to get more players involved,” Graystone said. “We just wanted to run a different lineup and get all our hitters some looks.”

Tuttle gave credit to Johnson and Harper.

“They got us started; they were awesome,” said Tuttle, who finished the match with eight kills. “If I can throw the defense off and get the kills, then that’s good for me. As long as I help out a little bit.”

Harper and Johnson ended with 12 kills apiece to lead all players, while junior Kelly Culley contributed 10 — most of which came in the last two games.

Although ENMU (3-16, 0-5) was swept by the Lady Buffs less than two weeks ago, the Zias bounced back to win the third game. That game victory snapped a 16-game losing streak to West Texas A&M, which had won the last four matches between the rivals in sweeps.

The Zias were led by senior Randi Egley’s 11 kills, while freshman Veronica Valdez added 10. Valdez and current West Texas frosh Cherilyn McMenamy were teammates at Canyon High last year — a motivating factor, according to Valdez.

“When we played in high school, we had competition on the team,” she said. “Now we have even more competition being rivals.

“Taking a game from the 17th-ranked team in the nation is always a good feeling. In that last game, we didn’t continue our momentum and get it done.”

ENMU came out flat in the fourth game and fell behind when West Texas scored four straight points to break a 7-7 tie. That kicked off a 14-4 run that put the Lady Buffs in control.

Trailing 21-11, Eastern then went on a five-point run. A tip for a point by freshman setter Grace Brandt forced a sideout and ENMU then got four straight points off the serve of libero Heidi Geyer to make the score 21-16.

Coming out of a timeout, officials ruled Geyer was out of rotation during the run. The resulting call nullified the Zias’ run and put the Buffs up 22-12.

“The libero had started serving for one player, and then she served for another player who she normally serves for in the rotation,” ENMU coach Kim Falkenhagen said. “It was just a mistake, but the scorer’s table didn’t catch it until four points into it.”