COMMERCE – By beating the Texas A&M International Dustdevils by a score of 3-1 on Friday night, the Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team has increased its winning streak to six matches in Lone Star Conference contests. The Lions won the match by set scores of 25-14, 25-20, 22-25 and 25-20 at the Field House against the Dustdevils.
Essence Allen (Longview – Tatum) had another double double for the Lions with career-high 21 kills and 14 digs.
Celeste Vela (Guadalajara, Mexico) had a double double as well, recording 44 assists and 14 digs, remaining on her conference leading pace of 10 assists per set.
The Lions have won six of their last seven matches to improve their overall record to 7-7 and hold a LSC record of 6-3. The Dustdevils drop to 2-13 overall and 2-6 in conference.
A&M-Commerce led 9-6 in the first set and improved it to 16-9 on a kill by Allen and forced Texas A&M International to use a timeout.
Coming out of the timeout,
Maiya Dickie (Huntsville) won three straight points for the Lions, two on kills and one on an assisted block by Dickie and Syndey Andersen (Placentia, Calif.), to force the Dustdevils to use their second timeout of the set.
The Lions won the set, 25-14 on an assisted block by
Maddy Rashford (Placentia, Calif.) and
Taryn Cast (Peaster). Allen had five kills in the first set and led the team with five digs as well.
Rashford had four kills in the first set, she had 14 in the match.
The second set started with A&M-Commerce building a 10-4 lead, starting with a 5-0 run after dropping the first point of the set. Allen had two kills, while Allen and Andersen had an assisted block and Cast had two to spark the run.
The Dustdevils stayed in the second set, pulling to 15-12, but the Lions responded with a 3-0 run and closed out the set, 25-20 on a kill by Allen, who had five kills and five digs in the second set as well. Rashford, Vela, and Andersen had three kills each in the set.
Lyric Hebert (Arvada, Colorado) had nine digs in the second set, she led the team with 20 in the match.
Riley Davidson (Commerce) had 16 in the match and Dickie had 10. Five Lions had double digit digs on Friday night.
Through the first 14 points of the third set, the two teams had combined for seven service errors. Texas A&M International capitalized on the errors to build a 13-9 lead, but the Lions responded to tie it at 13 on two kills by Allen and one each by Dickie and Andersen.
The Dustdevils were on their way to forcing a fourth set with a 24-19 lead, but the Lions did not go down easily in the set. After a kill by Allen returned the serve back to A&M-Commerce,
Ashley Pennington (Frisco – Liberty) served for the Lions, who won two straight points on kills by Allen to make it 24-22.
Following a timeout, Texas A&M International responded with a kill by Mackenzie Catalina to take the third set, 25-22. Catalina led the Dustdevils with 10 kills. The Dustdevils hit .128 in the match, while the Lions had a hitting percentage of .268.
The Lions led the fourth set, 4-0, on a service error and three attacking errors by the Dustdevils, leading 14-10 in the set. The Dustdevils remained in the match with a 5-0 run, including back-to-back kills by Hannah Thompson to take a 15-14 lead.
The two teams exchanged points until an ace by Vela and an assisted block by Cast and Andersen gave the Lions a 22-20 lead. Andersen delivered two straight kills to open up four set points for the Lions, who closed out the fourth set on an attacking error, 25-20.
Andersen had 10 kills and six assisted blocks in the match. Dickie had seven assisted blocks, the Lions had 24 total assisted blocks in the match.
UP NEXT
A&M-Commerce continues its homestand on homecoming weekend on Saturday at 1 p.m. against Texas A&M-Kingsville.
POSTGAME INTERVIEW
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