TAMU-Commerce 3, Tarleton 1
STEPHENVILLE - The Tarleton TexAnns dropped a Lone Star Conference match to visiting Texas A&M-Commerce in four sets (23-25, 25-16, 18-25, 31-33) at Wisdom Gym on Saturday.
Both teams found ways to extend what would become the final set in the match, but the Lions came out on top in the fourth set 33-31 to get the 3-1 win.
Tarleton fell to 5-10 overall and 1-1 in LSC match play. The Lions meanwhile racked up their 10th striaght victory and improved to 14-3 overall and 2-0 in the LSC. TAMUC snapped a five-match losing streak to the TexAnns in the process as well.
The Lions trailed just one time in the first set when the score was 13-12 following a TAMUC attack error, but the visiting team found a way to push back and get the first set win over the TexAnns.
Tarleton turned things around in the second set on their way to a nine-point win, but TAMUC responded with a seven-point win of their own in the third set to go up 2-1 on the TexAnns.
Tarleton led 17-12 midway through the fourth set when
Shay Gracy's attack landed safely to the floor on the other side of the net. TAMUC stormed back, scoring 10 of the next 13 points to take a 22-20 lead following a kill from Naomi Mays. Tarleton had service in a 24-23 game that could have given them the set, but TAMUC's Rachel Robertson connected on an attack that landed safely on Tarleton's side of the net to tie the match 24-24. Both teams traded points throughout the remainder of the set until Gracy's final attack landed out-of-bounds to give TAMUC the 33-31 set win.
For the second consecutive match, Tarleton had two players record double-doubles. Gracy finished the match with a 19 kills and 10 digs to record her first dobule-double of the season, while
Rachel Wolf came away with 10 kills and 12 digs on the day to earn her second straight double-double.
Jessie Hartman finished the match with a career-high 59 assists as
Shea McBrearty tallied a match-high 25 digs. Gracy added a match-high four blocks (all assisted) as well.
Mays recorded a match-high 24 kills in helping the Lions to victory. Perla Faudoa came away with 51 assists on the day as well.
Tarleton will return to action next Thursday, Sept. 24, against Central Oklahoma. First service is set for 7 p.m. in Edmond, Okla.
