CANYON – For the first time ever, Tarleton State is headed to the LSC Tournament Championship game after coming back from an 11-5 deficit in the fifth set to knock off top-seeded West Texas A&M in a five-set thriller.
 
Also, there will be a new tournament champion in the Lone Star Conference for the first time in nine years as the TexAnns end the Lady Buffs run of nine straight tournament championships. Tarleton will face Angelo State at 5 p.m. tomorrow for the crown and an automatic berth into the NCAA regional tournament next week.
 
Tarleton opened the set with a slim lead before West Texas A&M took the lead right back with a 12-11 lead. After the teams traded points to 13-12, Hailey Roberts evened things up with a kill shot and Jasmyne Brown put the TexAnns on top for the final time with a kill of her own.
 
West Texas A&M would tie it again at 17-17, but Tarleton would not relinquish its lead as a service error made it 18-17 and was the first of three straight points for the TexAnns to stretch the lead to 20-17. Tarleton kept WT from scoring consecutively the rest of the set and went on to take the opening set 25-20.
 
Tarleton carried the momentum into the second set and came out swinging with a 16-9 run over the first 25 points of the set, highlighted by five straight points served up by Katie Covell.
 
The Lady Buffs battled back to take a 20-19 lead before Tarleton turned it up with a 6-3 push down the stretch, all on kills by Roberts (3), Kaitlyn White (2) and Kelsey Raglin (1), to take the second set 25-23 and push the Lady Buffs to the brink.
 
After the Lady Buffs led the third set the entire way to force a fourth set, Tarleton opened the fourth set with an 11-9 advantage but the Lady Buffs would not go away by outscoring the TexAnns 16-11 over the final 27 points to take the set 25-22 and force a decisive fifth set.
 
Tarleton came out swinging in the fifth set with three straight kills from White and Alexander, who landed two straight to put the TexAnns up 3-0. WT answered right back, however, with an 11-2 run to take an 11-5 advantage in the final set – bringing them just four points away from the comeback.
 
A Lady Buff error, however, turned the serve back to Tarleton for most significant 9-2 run in the history of Tarleton volleyball.
 
Brown and Ashley Rine got a block and Roberts landed a kill to make it 11-8, forcing a West Texas A&M timeout. After a WT kill made it 12-8, Brown forced a side out with a kill shot to make it 12-9.
 
Then Roberts served up four straight points on one of her kills off a pass from Covell, two Lady Buff errors and a Rine kill to put the TexAnns up 13-12 and force WT's final timeout.
 
WT evened things up on a Tarleton error out of the break, but Tarleton State got a kill from Rine and then the game-winning point on an attack from by West Texas A&M to clinch the trip to the championship game tomorrow.
 
Roberts led the team with 26 kills and 20 digs, which is her second 20-20 game of the year. Alexander had 12 kills and six blocks while White landed 10 kills and made 10 digs.
 
Covell led the team with 28 digs while the Tarleton tandem of Emily Medlin (34) and Chandler Gow (30) combined for 64 assists and both topped the 30-assist plateau.
 
Tarleton State will play Angelo State for the LSC Tournament Championship at 5 p.m. Saturday.