Tarleton State University Athletics

SILVER CITY, NM – On the strength of 41 combined kills from Hailey Roberts, Autumn Taylor, and Alexis Applewhite, the Tarleton TexAnns came back to take the final three sets with typical Tarleton dominance to improve to 23-5 and 15-4 in league play.
 
After a 700-mile road trip from Stephenville to Silver City, New Mexico, the TexAnns came out and fell in a 0-2 hole after hitting .111 and .179 in each of the first two games.
 
But then, the TexAnns sparked back to life – beginning with a 10-0 run to open the third set.
 
Autumn Taylor opened the scoring before the TexAnns went on to pour on nine more points in a row – highlighted by a front-row block part from Elizabeth Muliaga. The junior middle blocker from American Samoa knocked down a solo block and three combo blocks, two of which were alongside Alexis Applewhite.
 
Tarleton rode the big lead to a 20-9 advantage in the set before closing it out with five of the final 13 points, including the game-winner by Abby Mackey, to take a 25-17 win and force a fourth set.
 
In the fourth set, the match started out with the teams splitting the opening 12 points before Tarleton began to slowly pull away. While Tarleton never scored more than two consecutive points the rest of the way, the Tarleton defense made sure the Mustangs settled for one-point and then a side-out over the rest of the match. The TexAnns went on to take the set 25-18, capped off by a kill from Jordyn Keamo.
 
With all the momentum now on the visiting bench, Tarleton capped off the rally in the fifth set – starting with back-to-back kills from Roberts and Keamo. The duo of TexAnn juniors put Tarleton up 4-2 before a Mustang error forced Western into a timeout at 5-2.
 
Out of the break, Tarleton went on a 7-3 run to extend its lead to 12-5 and force Western into another timeout. From there, the TexAnns went on to take the set 15-10, capped off by a kill from Alexis Applewhite.
 
Roberts led the team with 18 kills, but Taylor (12) and Applewhite (11) also cracked double figures. Applewhite landed her 11 kills on a .450 hitting percentage. Keamo added four kills on seven attempts with no errors for a team-leading .571 hit percentage on the night.
 
Keamo also led the team with 35 assists, while Chandler Gow dished out 15 dimes for the Tarleton offense. Roberts led the team with 19 digs in a double-double performance while Adrianna Knutson recorded 14 defensive digs of her own.
 
Tarleton will start its journey back to the Lone Star State with a pit-stop in Portales, New Mexico tomorrow night at 6 p.m. for a battle with the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds.