Texas Woman's 3, A&M-Commerce 0
Location: The Field House • Commerce, Texas
Records: A&M-Commerce (9-2, 2-1 LSC); Texas Woman's (9-2, 3-0 LSC)
Up Next: vs. West Texas A&M • Friday, September 21 • 5 p.m.
COMMERCE, Texas – A&M-Commerce hit a bump in the road in its first home match of the season as hitting errors and an energetic Texas Woman's team handed the Lions a 25-13, 25-21, 25-19 loss at the Field House. A&M-Commerce falls to 9-2 on the year and 2-1 in Lone Star Conference play.
Senior Rachel Robertson, who was honored prior to the match for recording her 1,000 th career kill, led the way for A&M-Commerce with 10 kills and three blocks with Breanne Snyder and Kayla Bond adding eight kills a piece for the Lions. Ezon Onditi added four kills, but they were the only Lions on the evening to record multiple kill totals.
Junior Jordan Neal, fresh off her LSC Setter of the Week honor, had 29 assists and 14 digs, leading A&M-Commerce in both categories as she notches her eighth double-double of the season. Savanah Neal added seven digs while Michaela Spicer finished with five.
Errors proved to be the story of the evening for A&M-Commerce, who tallied 33 kills with 25 errors on 123 attempts, hitting .065 against the Pioneers. Texas Woman's, on the other hand, recorded just nine errors with 40 kills on 96 attempts for a .390 hitting percentage. The Lions also had seven service errors on the evening.
A spirited crowd of over 700 people made the Field House an energetic venue on this Tuesday evening, but Texas Woman's seemed to feed off that energy, rolling in the opening set 25-13, highlighted by a 12-3 run to put the opening set out of reach.
A&M-Commerce grabbed an early lead in set two, but once again the Pioneers began to pull away, leading by as many as six at 19-13. The Lions showed their resilience, rallying back to pull to within two at 21-19, but Texas Woman's notched four of the final six points to take the commanding 2-0 lead.
Texas Woman's notched another substantial lead early in the third, trying to put the clamps on the match with an early 8-3 advantage. A&M-Commerce would rally once again, claiming the lead at 13-12, but the Pioneers continued to frustrate the Lion defense, pulling away at the end to claim the 25-21 victory and snap a two-match skid to A&M-Commerce.
Texas Woman's was led by 10 kills from Viktorija Jablonska, who also added five digs and a pair of kills, while Josie Santos added eight kills, 11 digs and three blocks and Chloe' Tate and Courtnee Davis each posted seven kills in the win for the Pioneers.
The Lions' four-match home stand continues with a pair of big matches this weekend, beginning with reigning LSC champion West Texas A&M Friday at the Field House. The match against the Lady Buffs will start at 5 p.m. to help avoid a conflict with the A&M-Commerce soccer game later that evening.
