SAN ANGELO – Tarleton fell to West Texas A&M in straight sets Friday night to end their run in the Lone Star Conference Championship Tournament in the semifinals.
 
This is the third straight season in which the TexAnns advanced to the semifinals of the LSC Championship Tournament.
 
Tarleton (23-9, 15-5) came out swinging in the opening set, scoring the first two points of the match on a ball handling error by WT and a big kill from Stacie Murrah.
 
WT (29-4, 17-3) immediately answered with a pair of its own and the teams stayed even until the TexAnns were able to pull away slightly with a quick 3-1 push to lead 13-10. WT took the momentum, however, with five unanswered points to take a 15-13 lead before the streak was ended by another Murrah kill.
 
The Murrah kill was the first of three straight TexAnn points to retake the lead at 16-15. The other two points came on a block by Meg Umbel and a service ace by Marissa Banda.
 
After WT knotted the score, the TexAnns kept it close until the Lady Buffs put together a 4-1 run over the final five points to steal the first set 25-22.
 
The Lady Buffs carried the momentum from their game one win into the second set and jumped out to an early 11-3 run before Murrah ended the streak with a kill shot. Tarleton couldn't inch any closer as the Lady Buffs went on to take the set 25-12.
 
Over the second set, Tarleton hit (-).022 percent on eight kills and nine errors on 45 attacks while the Lady Buffs were .263 percent on 12 kills and two errors in just 38 attacks.
 
In the third and final set, West Texas scored three of the first five points to lead 3-2 but Tarleton answered with three straight on two kills by Katie Covell and a Macie Walker service ace. The match then stayed tied or within one point until the 13-13 mark.
 
On the 27^th point of the match, WT scored back-to-back points to lead 15-13 and force a TexAnn timeout. They scored the first point out of the break to lead by three and they carried that three point lead until 20-17.
 
Murrah brought the TexAnns within two with a kill shot but the Lady Buffs responded with three straight points to push their lead to five at 23-18. Tarleton scored three of the final five points but were unable to prolong the match as WT went on to win 25-21.
 
McNorton led the team in kills with nine while Covell (8), Murrah (7) and Green (6) were next in line. Green's .353 hitting percentage led the team.
 
Emily Klein led the team with 22 digs while Covell (11) and Raglin (10) also cracked double figures. Danielle Barker led the team with 18 assists.
 
As a team, Tarleton hit just .121 with 20 errors for the night while WT was .287 with 11 errors.
 
Tarleton was ranked No. 10 in the South Central region coming into the tournament and now await the decision of the final rankings, which will be announced on the NCAA Selection Show Sunday at 10 p.m. EST at NCAA.com.