The No. 10 WTAMU Lady Buffs volleyball team enjoyed a very successful weekend, as they went 5-0 on their way to claiming the BritKare Lady Buff Classic title held on Sep. 5-7 at “The Box.”
Two Lady Buffs, redshirt senior Laura Iwuchukwu and senior Halie Harton, were named to the All-Tournament team and redshirt freshman Lauren Britten received MVP honors.
The action started for WT on Thursday when the Lady Buffs swept the ThunderWolves of Colorado State-Pueblo in three straight sets [25-17, 25-18, 25-13]. It was the school’s 400th victory at the The Box.
“You have to take some pride in that,” said senior Lee Golden. “Just coming in and looking around, you know there is some history here. It’s self-pride and respect for wearing the jersey. As an athlete, you better come out and show up, especially at ‘The Box.’”
Golden had a team-high 13 kills in the opening match, and Harton followed up with 10 kills of her own. Junior Kameryn Hayes had 26 assists, and Harton and Britten chipped in with eight digs.
WT played two games on Friday, the first against UT-Permian Basin and the second against Western State Colorado University. The Lady Buffs swept the first match in three straight sets [25-18, 25-17, 25-16].
Iwuchukwu had a team-high 14 kills, followed by Harton with 12 and Hayes with 10. Hayes had 27 assists and freshman Kyli Schulz recorded 20. Britten racked up 17 digs while Harton tallied 15.
In the second game against Mountaineers, the Lady Buffs dropped the first set, 19-25, before steamrolling to victory by taking the next three sets [25-12, 25-13, 25-20]. The first set was the only set WT lost over the entire weekend.
Harton led the team offensively with 12 kills, followed by Golden and sophomore Lexi Davis with seven kills each. Hayes tallied 24 assists and Britten recorded 15 digs.
WT finished things off on Saturday with victories over Lubbock Christian [25-17, 25-17, 25-12] and UC-Colorado Springs [25-20, 25-21, 25-21] to grab the title.
Iwuchukwu lead things offensively for the Lady Buffs against the Lady Chaps with ten kills; Harton had six kills and Davis had five. Hayes had a team-high 22 assists and Britten finished with eight digs.
After the game, Lubbock Christian head coach Jennifer Lawrence hadrespectful words for the WT squad.
“Of course WT is good, they are always good,” Lawrence said. “We like playing them; they are solid and strong. We are really young right now. We can’t make unforced errors when we play someone like WT, because they are going to take advantage of it. They are playing well.”
The Lady Buffs captured the title against the Mountain Lions behind Davis and Golden, both recording nine kills apiece. Hayes chipped in seven kills and had 21 assists, and Britten finished off her strong weekend with eleven digs.
“We were mentally very stable,” said WT head coach Jason Skoch. “That’s the most important thing moving forward. The mental side is better.”
WT will head to Denver, Colorado, to participate in the 2013 Colorado Premiere with their first match slated to begin at 12 p.m. on Sep. 13 against the 4-0 Spartans of Tampa.
