STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton is heading back to the Lone Star Conference Volleyball Championship game after a thrilling 3-1 victory (25-19, 22-25, 25-22, 25-16) over Cameron on Friday night at Wisdom Gym.
 
No. 1-seeded Tarleton (27-5) faces No. 2 Angelo State (29-5) tomorrow at 3 p.m. in Wisdom Gym as the TexAnns look to repeat as LSC Tournament champions. Tarleton would join West Texas A&M and Angelo State as the only current LSC teams to win back-to-back tournament titles. The two teams split the season series with each winning 3-1 at home.
 
Tarleton has won eight in a row and improved to 13-0 at home this season.
 
Hailey Roberts had a game-high 24 kills for the TexAnns along with 17 digs. Roberts has 684 kills on the season, which is already the most by a single player in a season, and is closing in on the Lone Star Conference record for kills in a season, which is 735 by West Texas A&M's Sarah Butler in 1999.
 
Xzache Mathis provided 12 kills for Tarleton while Kenya Alexander had eight kills and Kelsey Raglin and Meg Umbel each had seven kills.
 
Chandler Gow had a game-high 47 assists for Tarleton, giving the sophomore 1,347 assists on the year and breaking Christina Ortiz's single-season assists record set back in 2005.
 
As a team, the TexAnns had 80 digs. It's only the fourth time this season Tarleton has dug 80 or more attacks in a match. In addition to Roberts' 17 digs, Ayssa Garcia was right behind with 15, while Raglin and Gow had 14 digs apiece and Adrianna Knutson finished with 10 to give the TexAnns five players with 10 or more digs.
 
Alexander also had six blocks to give the senior 161 on the season and move into seventh on the single-season blocks lists.
 
The TexAnns split the first 20 points of the opening set but went on a 6-1 run to take their biggest lead of the set at 16-11. The TexAnns led 22-13 and closed out the opening set on Roberts' kill to win 25-16. Tarleton held Cameron to a -.051 hitting percentage in the opening set.
 
The second set featured 10 ties and four lead changes with Cameron building a 15-11 advantage. The TexAnns rallied to tie the score at 20-all on Roberts' kill but the Aggies scored the final three points to win 22-25. It was the first set won by Cameron against Tarleton all season with the TexAnns sweeping the previous two matchups.
 
Cameron kept the momentum rolling in the third set by building a 21-18 lead. Raglin's kill to make it 21-19 began a 4-0 run that gave Tarleton its first lead of the set at 22-21. Cameron would tie the score a 22-all, but the TexAnns were determined to avoid trailing at home all season and finished off the Aggies with kills from Roberts and Alexander to win 25-22.
 
Leading 2-1 in the game, the TexAnns looked like they were in for another back-and-forth set against the Aggies. With the score tied at 10, Tarleton went on a 6-1 run with five different TexAnns pouring in kills during the stretch. Tarleton would increase its lead to 22-13 and closed out the match on another kill from Roberts to clinch the win.