STEPHENVILLE – In a Tuesday night battle of South Central regional powers, Tarleton State (18-5) earned its 18^th win of the season with a thrilling victory over St. Edward's at Wisdom Gym.
 
The TexAnns and Hilltoppers entered the game as two contenders for spots in the NCAA regional rankings, which are set to be released in the coming weeks, and Tarleton earned the win on the strength of a .213 hitting percentage including a .311 mark in the decisive fourth set.
 
In the opening set, the teams were in a dead heat through the first 24 points at 12-12 before three straight kills from Kelsey Raglin, Kenya Alexander and Hailey Roberts to give the TexAnns a 14-12 advantage. Tarleton followed up with a 6-3 run to lead 20-15.
 
St. Edward's pulled within two at 22-20, but kills from Kaitlyn White, Hailey Roberts and the game-winner from Raglin gave the TexAnns a set-one win at 25-23.
 
The second set was the only one all night where Tarleton was outhit by St. Edward's as the Hilltoppers hit .333 to Tarleton's .146. Early miscues forced Tarleton to play from behind and, despite pulling within two at 18-16, the TexAnns couldn't overcome the deficit and fell 25-20 to even the match at 1-1 entering intermission.
 
St. Edward's dominated the first 19 points of set three by jumping out to a 13-6 lead, but Roberts turned the tide for Tarleton with a kill on the 20^th point that started an 11-4 run for the TexAnns to even the set at 17-17.
 
After the TexAnns fell behind by three at 21-18, Tarleton got a kill and an ace from Roberts and back-to-back kills from Ashley Rine – around a St. Edward's kill – to even things up again at 22-22.
 
In an even battle, St. Edward's took the game to its final point on two different occasions – at 24-23 and 25-24 – but a kill by White and a kill by Roberts, respectively, kept the game alive and the TexAnns ended the game with back-to-back points on another Roberts kill and a game-winning block from Raglin and Meg Umbel.
 
The final set was even at 9-9 over the opening 18 points before a bad set by St. Edward's started an 8-2 Tarleton run to make it 17-11. The Hilltoppers clawed back to make it 22-19, but three straight TexAnn points on Roberts' 26^th kill of the night and back-to-back Hilltopper errors gave Tarleton the win.
 
Roberts finished one kill shy of her career high with 26 kills to go along with 18 digs for her 13^th double-double of the season, a hitting percentage of .351 and five service aces. Raglin finished with nine kills while White and Kenya Alexander each tallied seven.
 
Emily Medlin, who was named the LSC Setter of the Week earlier today, recorded her first career double-double with 29 assists and 11 digs while Chandler Gow added 20 assists of her own. Katie Covell tied her career-high with a team-leading 32 digs.
 
Tarleton State will return to Lone Star Conference action this weekend when they visit Texas A&M-Kingsville Friday night at 7 p.m.