CANYON– The Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team lost its regular season finale in four sets to West Texas A&M Saturday night, snapping a six-game winning streak. The set scores were 18-25, 25-15, 13-25 and 21-25.
 
The loss drops the Lions to 19-12 on the season and 13-7 in the Lone Star Conference, finishing in fifth place. WT goes to 18-13 and 12-8 in the LSC.
 
The Lions will now proceed to the LSC postseason tournament, facing fourth seeded Eastern New Mexico in the first round. The game will be Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Junell Center in San Angelo.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Taryn Driver led the Lions with 11 kills in the match. Sydney Reyes added eight kills.
- The Lions had a hitting percentage of .055, with 35 hitting errors and 43 kills.
- Ashley Mireles had 16 digs for the Lions. This put her over 600 digs on the season.
- Rylie Fuentes and Gabriela Rosa each had 19 assists for the Lions. Fuentes now has more than 700 assists on the year.
- Three Lady Buffs finished with double-digit kills. Elisa Bentsen had 13 kills, Cori Haley had 11 and Taylor Kress had 10.
- WT had 13 blocks in the match compared to five for A&M-Commerce.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 WT made an early run in the first set. After losing the first two points, the Lady Buffs scored seven of the next eight points to take the early lead.
 
The Lions clawed their way back into the set. With two kills by Layne Little, the Lions cut the Lady Buff lead to just one midway through the set.
 
But WT went on another run. Led by Haley, the Lady Buffs scored eight of the next 12 points to take a 19-14 lead. The Lions scored the next two points but WT again went on a run. They scored six of the final eight points to take the first set 25-18. Kress had three kills down the stretch for the Lady Buffs and four total. Haley had three kills in the first set.
 
WT scored the first four points of the second set. They were aided by three Lion attack errors. However, the Lions climbed back into the set, scoring four of the next five, including three consecutive kills by Shantel Norton.
 
Trailing by two, the Lions went on a 7-0 run, led by three straight kills by Jaryn Wacker to take a 13-8 lead. The Lady Buffs went on a run of their own, scoring five unanswered to cut the Lion lead to one.
 
But the Lions responded again. They proceeded to score the next nine points, aided by WT attack errors and two kills by Reyes. Little also had two kills in the final points, giving the Lions a 25-15 win in the second set.
 
The Lions could not sustain the momentum of the second set into the third set. They traded points with the Lady Buffs in the early going. Trailing by one, the Lady Buff attack awoke and went on an onslaught.
 
They scored six unanswered points and capitalized on Lion errors once again. The Lions scored three of the next four points to cut down the WT lead to three but that's as close as they would get.
 
WT scored the next eight points and scored 11 of the final 13 points of the set to win the third set 25-13.
 
WT again took the early lead in the fourth set. They scored five unanswered points to take a quick 8-4 lead.
 
The Lions clawed their way back into the set, taking their first lead of the set at 16-15. Driver had four kills in the set to keep the Lions in striking distance. Reyes also had four kills in the set.
 
WT finished the set strong. Trailing by one, they scored four answered points. Crystal Thomas had four kills in the final set for the Lady Buffs.
 
Neka Nelson had two kills late in the set for the Lions but they were unable to regain the lead and fell 25-21.