STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton's bid for back-to-back Lone Star Conference Tournament championships came to a heartbreaking end Saturday afternoon when the TexAnns fell to No. 25 Angelo State in five sets at Wisdom Gym.
 
The season is still alive for Tarleton who is currently ranked No. 2 in the regional rankings behind Angelo State. The final poll will be announced at the NCAA Division II Selection Show on NCAA.com Monday night at 6:30 p.m. CST. There will be a watch party in the Wisdom Gym Basketball Gym for any TexAnn fans who would like to celebrate with the team.
 
The TexAnns are expected to qualify for the NCAA playoffs in Monday evening's show, which will be the second trip to the NCAA playoffs in school history.
 
Saturday's conference title game, which could be a possible preview of an NCAA regional playoff game, proved to be all it was hyped up to be as the match went to five sets, which included a split in the opening two games with each games needing extra points to decide a winner.
 
Hailey Roberts, who was named to the LSC All-Tournament team along with Ayssa Garcia and Chandler Gow, led all players with 26 kills while Gow dished out 42 assists and had nine digs before leaving the game in the fourth set with an injury. Garcia was the only player in Saturday's game to top 20 digs, going for 22 in the loss.
 
Xzache Mathis added 11 kills for the TexAnns while Meg Umbel added seven kills and eight blocks. Kenya Alexander added seven blocks.
 
The first game was a tight battle all the way through and forced extra points through 26-26. Roberts stepped to the service line in a 26-26 tie with the advantage in Tarleton's favor. The sophomore from Cedar Park put the game away with back-to-back service aces for a 28-26 win. After a 26-24 loss in set two, the TexAnns battled back with a vengeance in the third set and dominated the Rambelles 25-13 with a .385 attack percentage.
 
The Rambelles took game four 25-21 and game five 15-8 to win the match.
 
The NCAA regional tournament will begin December 3. The details, such as location, time, and opponent, will be decided following Monday night's selection show.