STEPHENVILLE – Texas Woman's made a valiant run as a Cinderella team through the Lone Star Conference tournament, but Cinderella was only a princess.
 
The TexAnns are the queens.
 
Tarleton dominated from the opening set and swept their way to the second Lone Star Conference Tournament Championship title in school history and earned an automatic berth into the NCAA regional tournament after defeating sixth-seeded Texas Woman's Saturday afternoon.
 
This Tarleton volleyball team is the first in school history to win a regular season league title and postseason tournament title in the same year. They are also the fourth team in Tarleton Athletics' history to accomplish the feat, joining the 2003-04 men's basketball, 2011-12 women's basketball, and 2013-14 men's basketball teams.
 
Tarleton came out on fire as a block from Jordyn Keamo and Hannah McManus started the match off with a 7-1 run in Tarleton's favor to force a Texas Woman's timeout. Out of the break, the Pioneers scored one more before Tarleton responded with four unanswered to extend its lead to 11-2.
 
After Texas Woman's pulled within four at 14-10, a service error opened the door for Tarleton and the TexAnns walked right in. The Pioneer service error started an 11-5, set-clinching run that was capped off by a Hailey Roberts service ace for a 25-14 win.
 
The Pioneers opened the second set by scoring five of the first eight points but a kill from Alexis Applewhite was the first of five unanswered Tarleton points to give the TexAnns an 8-5 lead. The Pioneers pulled as close as one on two different occasions, as late as 11-10, but another service error started a set-clinching 14-8 Tarleton run for a 25-18 set victory.
 
Tarleton was forced to play from behind again in the third set as the Pioneers built a 10-8 lead over the first 18 points but Roberts landed her ninth kill of the match to start a 5-1 Tarleton run to put the TexAnns back in the driver's seat at 13-11.
 
The Pioneers were as close as two as late as 18-16, but Tarleton ended the tournament with seven of the final 10 points to close out the championship run.
 
Hailey Roberts, Jordyn Keamo, and Adrianna Knutson were named to the All-Tournament team and Roberts took home Most Valuable Player honors for the second time in her career.
 
Roberts finished the match as the team leader with 12 kills while Amber Strange (9) and Hannah McManus (6) combined for 15 kills from the middle. Keamo dished out 26 assists while Michaela Rodriguez (16) and Knutson (14) combined for 30 digs.
 
Tarleton is currently sitting at No. 2 in the South Central Regional poll and have earned the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA postseason. The TexAnns will await their final fate, which will be announced on the NCAA Selection Show at 6:30 p.m. CT on NCAA.com Monday.