COMMERCE— The Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team lost a heartbreaking five-set match to Texas Woman's on Thursday night. After falling behind 2-0, the Lions caught fire late but could not get enough push in the final set to pull out the comeback. The set scores were 21-25, 15-25, 25-18, 25-19, and 8-15.
 
The loss brings the Lions to 24-6 on the season and they are eliminated from the LSC Tournament. TWU improves to 17-14 on the year and they advance to the semifinal round.
 
The Lions now await their fate in the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament. The NCAA Division II Volleyball Selection Show will air on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
 
HEAD COACH CRAIG CASE AFTER THE MATCH
- Thoughts on the match: "Both offensively and defensively, TWU outplayed us in those first two sets. We just could never get anything going. We started to play better defense in the third and fourth set. We didn't have enough fight and urgency in those first two sets. You have to give TWU all the credit in the world. They had it and they took that match from us. I tip my hat to TWU. They outplayed us and earned the win tonight."
- On the thunderous home crowd: "It was incredible. This is my 10th season, and this is the last match of the decade at the Field House for me. When I took this job 10 years ago, that was the type of crowd support that I envisioned we could accomplish. It was really good to see that. It felt like every match throughout the year, the home crowd got better and better. It was great to see everyone out here. We had incredible support from a lot of the other teams on campus and had great community support. That's why you fight so hard to host, so you can have that type of crowd in your corner in a tough conference tournament. When we used it in the third and fourth sets, it was great. But we didn't do enough to get the crowd involved early. And TWU played well enough to keep our crowd out of it."
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Sydney Andersen (Placentia, Calif.) had a career night, recording a career-high 24 kills in the match, hitting .321.
- Keziah Williams (Branson, Mo.) and Nicki Gonelli (Round Rock – Stony Point) both provided sparks off the bench, recording eight kills apiece.
- Shelley Chapron (Houston – St. Pius X) had seven kills and a pair of blocks.
- Celeste Vela (Guadalajara, Mexico) recorded a career-high 44 assists in the match, while also recording a double-double with a team-high 17 digs.
- Riley Davidson (Commerce) had 16 digs while Savannah Rutledge (The Woodlands – College Park) had 14.
- The Lions were held to a .169 hitting percentage while TWU hit .262 in the match. TWU had 11 blocks in the match.
- A&M-Commerce had 16 kills in the third set and 17 in the fourth set but could not find rhythm early or down the stretch.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was back-and-forth to start the match as there were 10 ties and four lead changes in the first set. The teams traded mini runs and were tied at 14 midway through the set. With the match tied at 18, TWU began to pull away, going on a 4-0 run, which the Lions could not match. A&M-Commerce fell 25-21 in the first set.
 
TWU got off to a hot start in the second set, recording two different 4-0 runs to establish a lead early. The Lions could not find their counter punch, trailing by as many as 10 in the set, falling 25-15.
 
The third set again was back and forth to begin, before the Lions began to find their rhythm. Andersen had multiple kills and Williams and Gonelli provided a spark off the bench to get the Lion offense off the ground. It was close until a late Lion 5-0 run gave A&M-Commerce the 25-18 set win.
 
The Lions exploded out of the gate in the fourth set, winning the first four points, including a pair of aces from Vela. A&M-Commerce eventually pushed their lead to seven points in the early part of the set. TWU pushed back, cutting the Lion lead to three points before a 6-0 run, including three consecutive kills from Andersen, put the set out of reach. The Lions won the set 25-19.
 
A&M-Commerce scored the first three points of the final set and with the crowd support, looked like they would pile on. However, TWU then scored seven points in a row to take control of the final set. The Lions cut the TWU lead to 10-8 but gave up the final five points to lose the match.