CANYON – The Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team defeated West Texas A&M in four sets on Friday evening. After falling in the first set, the Lions rallied to win the next three sets to win the match. The set scores were 15-25, 25-13, 25-19, and 25-23.

The win brings the Lions to 21-5 on the season and 13-2 in the Lone Star Conference. The Lady Buffs fall to 18-5 on the year and 11-4 in conference play.
 
A&M-Commerce will return to action on Saturday as they travel to Portales to face Eastern New Mexico. The match will be played at Noon MST (1 p.m. CST) at Greyhound Arena.
 
HEAD COACH CRAIG CASE AFTER THE MATCH
- On the slow start: "Coming into tonight's match, and I still think it's true after tonight, WT is one of the hottest teams in the Lone Star Conference right now. They came out and they were excited to play us and they were ready. The found some holes early and they attacked them, and we couldn't recover once we dug that big hole. I don't think we played as poorly as the score looked, but I didn't think we were competing at a high enough level. But I felt comfortable going into that second set that if we could play more disciplined and compete harder, that things would level out."
- On the poise of the team to right the ship in the second set: "If you are going to beat good volleyball teams, you have to be able to move on after losing a set. You can't do anything about it except identify what you need to improve. And I thought WT played pretty well in that second set. They had a couple of ill-timed unforced errors. But outside of that, I don't think the result of that set was them playing poorly. I thought we got to a level that was solid volleyball and we really fought to keep playing good volleyball. And when we did that consistently, WT's ups and downs caught up to them."
- On the senior leadership: "I thought our seniors were terrific tonight. Even though we struggled early, I thought they did a good job of preparing our team to play here. I thought they did a good job of pushing us forward. Responding to that first set is about leadership. It's about those seniors and what they do for us every single match."
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Sydney Andersen (Placentia, Calif.) led the team with 14 kills in the match. She also had five blocks.
- Shelley Chapron (Houston – St. Pius X) had 12 kills and led the team with seven blocks.
- Celeste Vela (Guadalajara, Mexico) led the team with 28 assists and also had an all-around performance, adding eight kills and six digs.
- Riley Davidson (Commerce) and Savannah Rutledge (The Woodlands – College Park) each had 14 digs.
- Daniela Santos (Caracas, Venezuela) had three aces in the match.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lions struggled out of the gate, as WT took the first eight points of the match, and 11 of the first 13. After the Lions scored three in a row, WT again piled on. The Lions could not recover, falling 25-15 in the set.
 
The script flipped in the second set, as it was the Lions who got off to a hot start. A&M-Commerce scored 11 of the first 13 points, including an 8-0 run. Another 4-0 run late snuffed out any chance for WT to make a comeback, as the Lions won the set 25-13.
 
WT jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third set before the Lions found their groove. The teams traded points as the Lions slowly began to chip away at the early WT lead, trailing 13-12 at the midway mark of the set. Trailing 15-14, the Lions then made their run, scoring four in a row, including a pair of aces from Santos, to take an 18-15 lead. Another 4-0 run for the Lions sealed the set, as A&M-Commerce won the set 25-19.
 
The Lady Buffs again jumped out to an early lead, taking the first three points of the fourth set. The Lions battled back with a 4-0 run of their own to take the lead. The lead changed hands often in the set, as neither team could pull away from the other. The teams matched pairs of runs late, but the Lions capitalized in the end. Trailing 23-22, A&M-Commerce scored the final three points to win the set 25-23 and take the match.