COMMERCE – Beginning the final weekend of the regular season, the East Texas A&M University volleyball team fell in four sets to Southland Conference champion Southeastern Louisiana on Thursday night via set scores of 25-19, 25-23, 13-25, and 25-20, on the Hunt Regional Healthcare Court in the Field House.
 
Southeastern won the regular season conference championship outright with the win and is now 23-4 on the season, having won 23 in a row, and is 15-0 in SLC action. The Lady Lions will be the top seed in next week's conference tournament, which they are hosting.
 
East Texas A&M falls to 9-18 on the season and 6-9 in Southland play. Heading into the final match of the regular season on Saturday, the Lions haven't officially clinched a spot in the conference tournament and can fall from anywhere from the seventh seed in the eight-team tournament to missing out on the postseason completely based on results around the SLC.
 
The first two points of the match went to SLU and the Lady Lions used the cushion to lead wire-to-wire in the first set and closed out the set on a kill by Cicily Hidalgo. East Texas A&M was only able to tie the set at five, but never take the lead.
 
The second set was tied at one, but Southeastern won the next four points, though East Texas A&M did put together a 6-0 run to climb out of a 10-6 hole and lead 12-10, its first of the match. Both teams exchanged points until 22-22, and then the next two went to Southeastern for two chances to win the set. Despite a service error, a kill from Hidalgo sealed the set for SLU.
 
East Texas A&M took the first five points of the third set, which included two blocks from Carley Spachman (Leewood, Kan.) and led 10-1 behind back-to-back aces from Kylie Bray (Concordia Lutheran). Southeastern hit -0.143 in the third set as East Texas A&M took the set on a kill from Gracie Campbell (Klein Oak).
 
SLU won four of the first five in the fourth, and despite East Texas A&M winning three of five to come to within one at 11-10, the Lady Lions pushed the lead back up 20-13. The Lions went on a 3-0 run to pull to 22-20, but a service error gave the serve back to the Lady Lions, who won the next two and closed the match on a kill from Hidalgo once again.
 
For East Texas A&M, Kitana Tuufuli (St. Hedwig – Steele) had nine kills, while Avery Wilks (Mont Belvieu – Barbers Hill) had seven, and Spachman recorded six. Ellie Baumert (Dodge, Neb.) recorded 30 assists and Jade Smith (Houston – Mayde Creek) had 21 digs.

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The Lions welcome New Orleans for Senior Day on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Tickets can be purchased at LionAthletics.com/tickets.