ENMU ROUNDUP: Hounds 2nd, Zias 3rd in LSC cross country

Staff report

WICHITA FALLS, Texas — Eastern New Mexico University’s men finished second while the women were third on Saturday in the Lone Star Conference cross country championships.

ENMU’s men finished with 81 points, trailing defending champion West Texas A&M, which had 28 points. It was the second year in a row the Greyhounds were runnersup to WT.

Senior Kevin Roa led the Hounds, placing seventh in the eight-kilometer race in a time of 25 minutes, 54.9 seconds, while senior Jacob Lozano came in 12th in 26:18.6. West Texas A&M’s Brett Villarreal won the race in 25:24.2.

The Zias finished with 59 points. Midwestern State and WT each had 49 points, but the host Mustangs earned the team title by virtue of a better finish for their No. 6 runner.

Junior Amber Saiz and senior Sabrina Huelga ran 5-6 in the race for the Zias, Saiz finishing in 23:13.3 and Huelga coming in at 23:13.7. WT’s Emma Love was the individual winner in 22:37.3.

ENMU runners are back in action on Nov. 22 in the South Central Region championships, hosted by Metro State in Denver.

Volleyball — Sophomore outside hitter Courtney Lawson and senior setter Kennedi Catano posted double-doubles and ENMU rebounded from a three-game sweep at the hands of Texas A&M-Commerce the night before to outlast Texas Woman’s 17-25, 27-25, 25-21, 18-25, 15-12 in the Lone Star Conference regular-season finale for both teams on Saturday at Greyhound Arena.

With the win, ENMU locked up the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament, scheduled from Thursday through Saturday at Canyon, Texas. The Zias (13-17, 5-11 LSC) take on third-seeded Angelo State in a quarterfinal match.

ENMU snapped a 12-match losing streak to TWU, dating to Sept. 16, 2005, and beat the Pioneers at home for the first time since Nov. 16, 1996.

Despite the loss, the Pioneers (18-8, 11-5) held on to the No. 2 seed in the tournament over ASU (19-7, 11-5).

Lawson posted 10 kills and a career high-tying 23 digs, her 16th carrer double-double, while Catano notched her 25th with 16 assists and 12 digs. Meantime, senior middle blocker Agatha Gibbons had 16 kills and eight block assists and Fort Sumner senior middle blocker Bree Lucero chipped in 11 kills.

Senior setter Karra Day matched her season high with 28 assists, while Clovis freshman Andrea Aguilar had 20 digs and a season-best seven assists.

After TWU took the first set, the Zias erased a 22-17 deficit to square the match. The third set was close before the Zias got late kills from Lawson and Gibbons to go up 2-1.

The Pioneers controlled the fourth game after grabbing an early 5-1 lead, but the Zias went on a 6-1 run to open a 9-4 cushion in the fifth and held off a late Pioneers bid.

Jaqueline Santos led four Pioneers with double-figure kills with 18, while Mallory Kuechle had a double-double with 14 kills and 21 digs and setter Joey Redwine notched 55 assists.