ENMU spikers drop home, LSC debuts

PORTALES - Despite a pair of rallies over the weekend and its first time on the friendly floor of Greyhound Arena, the Eastern New Mexico volleyball team dropped a pair of weekend Lone Star Conference matches.

Friday saw the Greyhounds fall to Lubbock Christian 25-20, 25-13, 23-25, 25-16. Saturday saw some early rallying on the Greyhounds' part, but Angelo State dealt them a 25-23, 25-12, 25-16 loss to drop the early season record to 2-7 with a 2-0 mark in LSC play.

The matches were the first for the Greyhounds since learning coach Sia Poyer was taking an indefinite leave of absence for medical reasons. This is Poyer's seventh season as head coach of the Greyhounds, following 14 seasons as an assistant under Mike Maguire and eight years running the Valdosta State program in between. Assistant coach Katie Burnett will assume head coaching duties during Poyer's absence.

The Greyhounds head east this weekend for more LSC battles, taking on new conference members St. Mary's Friday and St. Edward's Saturday in crossover matches. With the expansion of the conference, LSC play includes three six-team divisions with two matches against each division opponent and eight crossover matches against teams from the other two divisions. The Greyhound division opponents are Angelo State, Lubbock Christian, Texas-Permian Basin, Western New Mexico and West Texas A&M. The conference tournament will be held Nov. 19-23, with a seeding committee selecting the 12 participants.

Against Lubbock Christian: The teams had a spirited fight in the first game, with the Greyhounds using a 4-0 run early for a 7-5 advantage. Neither team led by more than three points until a 20-20 tie was broken up by a 5-0 Chaps run to close it out.

Avery Moore and Ashley Vanfleet each had 11 kills to lead the Chaps, while Maddie DeGuire had three aces and Bradi Marshall picked up 42 assists. Julie Tucker had 10 blocks to lead the Greyhound defense, but the offense struggled with only Jasmine Gannon (eight) notching more than six kills.

Following an attack error to open the second game, the Chaps took control with an 8-0 run that featured three Hannah Thomas kills.

The Greyhounds never got closer than six the rest of the set, which ended with a Morgan Schwarz kill.

After a third set that saw ENMU close things out with a 5-0 run, the Chaps rolled out to a 5-1 fourth-set advantage. The Chaps never led by less than four the rest of the way, closing things out with a 3-1 burst.

Against Angelo State: The visiting Rambelles fought off a spirited ENMU challenge in the first set, then eliminated a 5-2 second-game deficit and 10-7 third-game deficit before pouring it on late.

Kailyn Gilbreath had 12 kills to lead the Rambelles, while Lindsey Ledyard had 20 assists.

The Greyhound offense struggled, with their top three hitters combining for 16 kills - six from Christelle Kialanda, and five each from Gannon and Sara Tuioti-Mariner.