COMMERCE – For the fourth time in the last five meetings over the past three seasons, the East Texas A&M University volleyball team and the UIW Cardinals needed a match-deciding fifth set, which was won 15-13 by the Cardinals on Saturday afternoon on the Hunt Regional Healthcare Court in the Field House.
 
The set scores of the back-and-forth contest on Saturday afternoon were 25-23, 22-25, 23-25, 25-19, and 15-13 in favor of the Cardinals, who are 6-8 overall and 2-0 in Southland Conference play. East Texas A&M falls to 2-11 overall and 0-2 in SLC action.
 
The Lions started off the day leading 6-2 in the first set, but the Cardinals went on a 4-0 run to tie the set. With East Texas A&M leading 21-18, UIW won four of the next five to tie the set at 22. After the Lions halted the scoring run with a kill, the Cardinals won three in a row to win the first set, 25-23, on a kill by Finley Evans.
 
The second set was tied at 17 until the Lions took a 20-17 lead as part of a 4-0 scoring run. Despite two points in a row going to the Cardinals, the Lions earned a set point on a service error and Haley Mullaney (Victory Christian Academy) delivered a kill to even the match.
 
The Lions had a 13-8 lead in the third set, but back came the Cardinals, who reached within 13-12. A 7-0 scoring run from UIW gave the Cardinals a 21-19 advantage, but the Lions won five of the next six to have two set points. Gracie Campbell (Klein Oak) put the Lions ahead in the match with a kill to end the third.
 
An early 11-7 lead for the Cardinals was trimmed to one by the Lions at 13-12, but the next six points went to the Cardinals, who took the final points of the set to force a deciding set on a kill by Evans.
 
The Lions jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the fifth set, which was their third five-set match of the season, having won over both Lindenwood and Abilene Chirstian in the last week.
 
Trailing early in the set, the Cardinals served back a 7-0 run to jump by three. UIW had an 11-7 advantage in the set until the Lions put together a 5-0 run to move ahead 12-11. The Cardinals ended the afternoon winning four of the final five points of the match, winning it on a kill by Allison Calissa.
 
Campbell had team-best 20 kills for the Lions for a double-double as she also recorded 23 digs. Zoe Ruskofsky (Clovis, Calif.) picked up 13 kills, Mullaney posted 36 assists, Jade Washington (Waco – Midway) totaled 28 digs and Rendi Fetty (Farmersville) had 19.
 
UP NEXT
The next four matches come on the road for the Lions, who play at A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday at 11 a.m. and at UTRGV next Saturday at noon next week.