SILVER CITY, N.M. – In the regular season finale, the Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team swept the Western New Mexico Mustangs, 3-0, at Drag's Court on Saturday afternoon. The Lions finish the season in fifth place in the Lone Star Conference standings.
 
A&M-Commerce won 12 of its last 14 conference matches to finish the season with a LSC record of 12-5 and an overall record of 14-9. The Lions secure the No. 5 seed in the LSC Championship and will host the first round of the tournament against Oklahoma Christian on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
 
"We can play quite a few teams in the next week," said coach Craig Case. "The one thing they all have in common is that they all created substantial mismatches that hurt us. No matter who we play we've got a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it."
 
The Mustangs started the match with a lead in the first set, 20-15. The Lions won three straight point to force a WNMU timeout. A kill by Taryn Cast (Peaster), a block by Sydney Andersen (Placentia, Calif.), and an attacking error by the Mustangs.
 
The Lions trailed 23-22 in the first but won two straight points on kills by Maiya Dickie (Huntsville) and Andersen to have a chance to win the set at 24-23, but an error tied the set. The Lions had another chance to win the set at 25-24, but also lost that point. Western New Mexico had three of its own chances to win the set, but the Lions fought them off.
 
A block by Andersen gave the Lions a 29-28 lead, but the Mustangs tied it again. Finally, a kill by Maddy Rashford (Placentia, Calif.) gave the Lions a chance to win the set at 30-29 and they closed it out on a ball handling error.
 
"WNMU played at a really high level in the first set," said Case. They were a step faster and an inch higher than us in pretty much every aspect of the game. However, at about the midway point we started getting things going on our side of the net and things started clicking."

"I was really pleased with how focused and competitive we were in the first set in what was clearly a playoff like set and environment."
 
Dickie had six kills in the set, Rashford had five. Riley Davidson (Commerce) had nine digs in the first set, Celeste Vela (Guadalajara, Mexico) led the way with 15 assists.
 
In the match, Rashford had 16 kills, Vela had 36 assists, Lyric Hebert (Arvada, Colo.) recorded 11 digs, and Andersen had four blocks.
 
The Lions outhit the Mustangs, .370 to .155 in the match. A&M-Commerce did not trail in the second set and closed out the set, 25-20, on an ace by Davidson. The largest lead in the set for A&M-Commerce was six.
 
A kill by Vela gave the Lions a 24-13 lead in the third set, its largest lead of the match. The Lions did not trail in the third set either and won the match, 25-14, on a kill by Destiny Greenwood (Fairfield, Calif.).