COMMERCE – Despite going down to the wire in the final two sets, Tarleton State pulled off their sixth sweep of the season by knocking off Texas A&M-Commerce in straight sets Friday night.
The win pushed the TexAnns to 14-4 on the season and 6-3 in Lone Star Conference play in addition to giving the TexAnns their fourth straight win.
After the Lions opened the first set with a 9-8 lead, a kill from
Kaitlyn White shifted the momentum to Tarleton's favor and was the first of eight straight points for the TexAnns as they built a commanding 16-9 lead. They outscored the Lions 9-7 down the stretch to take the opening set 25-16.
Tarleton carried the momentum into the first part of the second set as the TexAnns jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead before Commerce stormed back to tie the score at 19-19.
After splitting the next 12 points to head into extra points at 25-25, the teams swapped the advantage with Tarleton finally able to put the game away on a
Hailey Roberts kill, a Lion error and a game-ending kill shot from
Jasmyne Brown.
In the third set, it was Commerce who came out firing as the Lions jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead to force Tarleton into an early timeout. Out of the break, Roberts landed a kill shot that started a 9-4 Tarleton run to even things up at 11-11.
The teams stayed even through 20-20 before
Kenya Alexander blasted down a point off a pass from
Chandler Gow to put Tarleton on top and force a Lion timeout. After Commerce tied the game at 23-23, Tarleton put it away off an error from Commerce and a game-winning ace from
Ayssa Garcia.
Roberts led the team with 16 kills to go along with a team-leading 12 digs while Brown led the team with a .545 hitting percentage on seven kills.
Emily Medlin (17) and Gow (12) combined for 29 assists in the sweep.
Tarleton will head down to Denton tomorrow for an afternoon meeting with Texas Woman's at 2 p.m. in Kitty Magee Arena.
