STEPHENVILLE– The No. 20 Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team defeated Angelo State 3-1 in the first round of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional tournament on Thursday. The Lions won the first set and rallied from behind in both the third and fourth sets to get the victory. The set scores were 25-19, 14-25, 25-14 and 25-23.
 
The win brings the Lions to 29-5 on the season and they advance to the semifinal round. Angelo State falls to 22-10 on the year and they are eliminated. It is the first NCAA playoff win for A&M-Commerce since the 1988 season.
 
The Lions will face Colorado Mesa, the third seed in the tournament, on Friday at 5 p.m. The match will be played at Wisdom Gym in Stephenville.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Celeste Vela (Guadalajara, Mexico) recorded her ninth triple-double of the season with 13 kills, 18 assists and 11 digs while hitting .296. She led the team in kills and assists.
- Jaryn Wacker (Austin - Vista Ridge) hit .300 with 12 kills and had a double-double with 12 digs.
- Shelley Chapron (Houston - St. Pius X) had nine kills and four blocks while Bina Njikam (Keller) had five kills and led the team with six blocks.
- Jaslyn Wacker (Austin - Vista Ridge) and Madison Luther (Sealy) had four kills apiece.
- Rylie Fuentes (Robinson) had a double-double with 17 assists and 14 digs. Savannah Rutledge (The Woodlands - College Park) also had 14 digs in the match.
- The win is the Lions' 12th in a row, their longest winning streak of the season.
- The win is the Lions' first NCAA Playoff since the 1988 season.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lions struck first and took a lead before the Rambelles scored three in a row to take a lead. The teams began to trade points, with neither taking more than two points in a row. Midway through the set, the teams were tied at 12. The Lions began a run from there, taking five points in a row to build a three-point lead. The Rambelles cut the Lion lead to one point but A&M-Commerce finished the set on a 5-1 run to win the set 25-19. The Lions held ASU to a .088 hitting percentage in the set. Six different Lions had kills in the set.
 
After the teams traded the first four points of the second set, ASU scored four of the next five to build a three-point lead. The Lions battled back with defense, with consecutive blocks from Jaslyn Wacker and Chapron to tie the match at eight. ASU began to take control of the set, scoring four points in a row. The Lions could not stem the tide and fell 25-14.
 
The Lions got off to a quick start in the third set, taking seven of the first 10 points. ASU then went on an 8-1 run to take an 11-8 lead. The Lion offense then exploded, winning 17 of the final 20 points of the set. Vela had four kills in the set. The Lion defense held ASU to a -.167 hitting percentage in the set.
 
ASU took three of the first four points of the set before the Lions tied the set at four. ASU scored four in a row again but the Lions battled back to tie the set again, this time at 10. After a 3-0 run from ASU, the Lions came back with a 6-0 run of their own to take a 16-13 lead. ASU battled back to tie the match at 19 and then took the lead. The Lions locked in in the final points, winning six of the final seven to win the match in four sets. Vela and Jaryn Wacker each had six kills in the final frame.
 
QUOTES FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE
 
Coach Craig Case
Thoughts on the match: "It was as good of a match as we thought. Angelo and us know each other very well. We know them well enough to know they have some very good volleyball players and we were going to see some things from them that we hadn't seen yet. And we did and they beat us pretty good in one set. But I really liked the way our team kept adjusting and made adjustments based on what Angelo was doing. That is just a really good volleyball team and they are very well coached. It is tough to win in the regional tournament."
 
Thoughts on the play of Celeste Vela: "She is really talented. She is a good hitter, a great setter, she is a good defender, good server, good blocker. One of the things we try to do is try to use her talent as much as we can. I thought there were some critical times where we were moving her and Rylie Fuentes back and forth from setter to DS. That was really critical for us. I thought we were able to take some pressure off their serves because they were trying to make Rylie pass the ball. If you don't have talented players that can do a lot of stuff, it is hard to utilize that. Celeste was Freshman of the Year in our league for a reason. We are really proud of her and happy to have her on our team."
 
Jaryn Wacker
Thoughts on the match: "They have a really good program and we have played them already this year. We knew we would see stuff that we had seen already and we knew we were going to see some new things. They have a good coach and they make lots of adjustments. They were switching around their pin hitters and their middles. But when our team recognizes those substitutions, we can target different players and take advantage of that. We can take advantage of people coming in off the bench that are cold and not ready to play and target them. I think our team executed our game plan very well. We knew what we wanted to do headed into the match. We have played against them before, We have played in this gym before. And we executed our plan well. We got stumped up on one set but we kept our cool and finished strong."
 
Celeste Vela
Thoughts on her play in first regional match of her career: "I'm so happy. I thought we played very good. We had our bad times but we overcame those. When I came here, I was kind of scared because it is different. I am from Mexico and it is totally different. But now that ive been here and have seen that I can do a really good job with my team and my coaches, I'm so happy."