COMMERCE – In its third match this week at the Field House, the Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team swept the Texas Woman's University, 3-0 on Saturday afternoon, winning all nine sets at home this week.
 
Three matches remain in the regular season for the Lions. They are in fifth place in the Lone Star Conference standings with a record of 10-4 and drop the Pioneers to a record of 8-16 overall. A&M-Commerce still has two matches left against teams that are either ahead of it in the standings or have the same record.
 
A&M-Commerce fought off a set point to win the first set, 26-24, rolled in the second set, 25-19, and cruised in the third, 25-15.
 
Celeste Vela (Guadalajara, Mexico) had a double-double with 32 assists and 10 digs. Essence Allen (Longview – Tatum) fell one kill short of a double-double. She had nine kills and 12 digs. Taryn Cast (Peaster) recorded eight kills and three assisted blocks. Vela and Karena Tipton (Midlothian – Heritage) had three assisted blocks each as well.
 
The stats leader for the Lions were Maddy Rashford (Placentia, Calif.) with 12 kills, Allen with two aces and 12 digs, and Vela with 32 assists.
 
Lyric Hebert (Arvada, Colo.) had 11 digs, Riley Davidson (Commerce) had eight digs, and Vela fell four kills shy of a triple-double with six kills among other notable performances on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Lions started the match on a 9-3 run on a kill by Vela and maintained a lead for the majority of the first set. A kill by Rashford gave A&M-Commerce a 22-16 lead, but the Pioneers went on an 8-1 run to have a chance to escape the first set with a win.
 
Trailing 24-23 in the first set, the Lions benefitted from a service error to tie the set and had a chance to win the set following an assisted block by Cast and Vela. An attacking error by the Pioneers gave the Lions a 26-24 first set win.
 
The Lions hit .395 in the set and held the Pioneers to a hitting percentage of .114.
 
A kill by Nicki Gonelli (Round Rock – Stony Point) secured the first point of the second set for the Lions, who did not trail in the set, and led by as many as six points multiple times in the set. A kill by Cast gave the Lions the second set win, 25-19.
 
Seventeen of the 25 points won in the set for the Lions came via kills and they hit .516 in the set and withstood the Pioneers hitting .286. Rashford had five kills in the set, Allen had four and Sydney Andersen (Placentia, Calif.) had three.
 
A block by Cast and Vela gave the Lions a five-point lead in the third set, and they closed out the set on a 6-0 run to win 25-15.
 
The Pioneers hit .000 in the third set and the Lions had 19 digs in the set, they had 53 as a team in the match.
 
This week against Southeastern Oklahoma State, DBU and Texas Woman's, A&M-Commerce won all nine sets this week.



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The Lions conclude the home portion of their regular season schedule against the conference leaders on Senior Day. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m. against UT Tyler on Saturday, November 6.