The No. 9 WTAMU volleyball squad continued their strong play of late, sweeping the Lions of Texas A&M-Commerce [25-17, 25-18, 25-16] and the Pioneers of Texas Woman’s over the weekend. The two wins extend the Lady Buffs’ current winning streak to ten games while also extending their winning streak at “The Box” to 18.
Against A&M-Commerce on Oct. 11 the Lady Buffs were led offensively by senior Halie Harton with 15 kills, followed by junior Lauren Bevan with seven kills and sophomore Lexi Davis with six. Junior Kameryn Hayes served up 35 assists and redshirt freshman Lauren Britten had ten digs.
WT hit .326 as a team while holding the Lions to just .067 as a team. The Lady Buffs racked up eleven blocks and the Lions were only able to muster up two blocks for the match.
Versus Texas Woman’s on Oct. 12 the Lady Buffs got off to a hot start and won the first set, 25-15. The going wasn’t easy from there, as WT won a seesaw battle in set two, 25-21, and rallied from behind in set three to win the match, 25-22.
“In general it’s good to win,” Harton said after the sweep of the Pioneers. “It’s good to win against such a good team. [The Pioneers] are good – they’re fast, they’re high-flyers, and it’s just fun to win good system ball against someone so good.”
WT was led offensively by Bevan with a career high tying 17 kills, followed by Harton with eleven kills and senior Lee Golden with six. Hayes served up 41 assists and Britten had 13 digs.
The Lady Buffs hit .267 as a team and held the Pioneers to just .129.
Britten, a transfer from Oklahoma State, gave a lot of credit to her teammates after the game versus Texas Woman’s for making the transition to WT so easy.
“I’m a lot more comfortable [now compared to the beginning of the season],” Britten said. “It was kind of weird coming to this outrageous program, but the girls are amazing and everyone really welcomed me. That’s what I was worried about, and now it’s just a big family.”
Harton shared Britten’s sentiment, saying this year’s Lady Buffs squad holds one another accountable and plays very hard for each other more than anything else, and she takes pride in personally being a very versatile player.
“I think everybody has that mindset on our team,” Britten said. “We want to be good at all aspects of the game; you just don’t want to be one-dimensional. It’s just being a well-rounded player, it’s good for any sport.”
The Lady Buffs improved their overall record to 16-3 and moved to 6-0 in Lone Star Conference play with their victory over A&M-Commerce.
WT will travel to Portales, New Mexico to take on Eastern New Mexico on Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. They will then return home for a pair of games next weekend on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. against Midwestern State and Cameron, respectively.
