The Lone Star Conference tournament final will feature West Texas A&M and Angelo State for the fourth straight year, after both teams won five-set semifinal matches.

WT will make its 16th championship game appearance with 14 titles including last seven, while ASU is in the final for 11th time with six titles.

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#6 Lady Buffs Top Lions in a Five Set LSC Semifinal Thriller in Canyon

The #6 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M fell behind two sets to one but rebounded to outlast the Lions of Texas A&M-Commerce in a five set thriller (21-25, 25-21, 25-27, 25-19, 15-13) in front of over 800 fans during the Lone Star Conference Championships Semifinals on Friday night at the WTAMU Fieldhouse "The Box" in Canyon. The Lady Buffs move to 30-3 overall while the Lions end their season at 23-9.
The win lifts the Lady Buffs to 36-7 all-time against the Lions with WT taking  the last 21 meetings dating back to the 1994 season. The win also gives WT their 24th consecutive win this season along with their 26th straight home win dating back to last season.
 
The opening set saw the Lady Buffs come out swinging as they tallied the opening five points of the set before the Lions responded to cur the WT lead to 12-11 before another Lady Buff run was ended by a huge Lexi Davis solo block in the middle to force a Commerce timeout with WT leading 16-13, the Lions fought back to take the 21-19 lead as a TAMUC service error forced a WT timeout. Commerce stretched their lead to 24-21 on a WT attack error to force another Lady Buff timeout followed by another Lady Buffs attack error as Commerce took the opening set, 25-21.
 
The second set saw the Lady Buffs shake off the opening set loss as they went on an 11-4 run to open up the frame highlighted by a Halie Harton kill in the deep corner that forced a Commerce timeout, WT stretched their lead to 13-4 before the Lions mounted another comeback to cut the WT lead to 14-11 and force a timeout. The Lions tied the match at 14-14 before a Lady Buff run that forced a Commerce timeout with WT leading 17-14, the teams traded blows before Davis and Laura Iwuchukwu connected on back-to-back kills to give WT the 25-21 win.
 
The third set saw the Lions come out hot as they took the early 7-3 lead before a WT run that tied the match at 9-9, Commerce answered once again as they forced a Lady Buff timeout with the Lions leading 12-9. The Lady Buffs responded with a run of their own after the break as an Iwuchukwu kill forced a Lion timeout with TAMUC leading 14-12, WT continued their comeback following the break as Iwuchukwu took over the set to force another Lion timeout with WT leading 21-18.
 
The teams continued to trade points after the break as the Lions came back from a pair of set points to take the 25-24 lead to force another Lady Buff timeout, Iwuchukwu connected on the kill followed by a pair of Lion kills to give Commerce the 27-25 win.
 
The fourth set saw the Lady Buffs come out swinging once again as they registered five of the first six points of the frame to force an early Lion timeout with WT leading 5-1, the Lions responded once again to cut the WT lead to 11-8 to force a Lady Buff timeout. WT went on a run after the break highlighted by a Harton service ace and Lee Golden setter dump to force a Lion timeout with WT leading 18-10. The teams traded points following the break but a Lauren Bevan kill gave the Lady Buffs the set, 25-19.
 
The fifth and final set saw the Lady Buffs come out swinging as they registered six of the first eight points of the deciding set to force a Commerce timeout, WT took the 8-4 lead into the side change before the Lions fought back to tie the match at 12-12. The crowd of over 800 fans at The Box made the place rock as the Lady Buffs registered the 15-13 victory.
 
The Lady Buffs were led offensively by Laura Iwuchukwu who tallied a career high 21 kills followed by Lauren Bevan with 13 and Lexi Davis/Halie Harton with nine each. Kameryn Hayes dished out a team high 54 assists on the night while Harton led all players with 18 digs followed by Lauren Britten with 16 and Hayes with 11 for the double-double.
 
WT hit .214 as a team with 29 attack errors and 7.5 total blocks on the night while the Lions hit .188 as a team with 31 attack errors and 11.0 blocks in the match.
 
The Lions were led by LSC Newcomer of the Year Amy Davault with 17 kills followed by Ezon Onditi with 15, Ciara Holmes with 12 and Kayla Bond with 10. Jordan Neal proved why she was named the LSC Setter of the Year as she dished out a match high 58 assists on the night while Davault and Michaela Spicer with 17 digs each.
 
The Lady Buffs advance to tomorrow's LSC Championship game for the 16th overall time (14-1) as they will face-off with the #20 Belles of Angelo State with first serve set for 2 p.m. at the WTAMU Fieldhouse "The Box" in Canyon. The Belles used a thrilling win of their own earlier in the day as they topped the Pioneers of Texas Woman's in five sets.

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No. 20 Belles advance to LSC Championship final with five-set win over TWU

The Angelo State volleyball team is headed to its fourth consecutive Lone Star Conference Championship finals after earning a 3-2 (21-25, 25-21, 16-25, 25-22, 15-12) semifinal win over Texas Woman's on Friday at the WTAMU Fieldhouse.
 
ASU, which also advanced to last year's final with a five-set semifinal win over TWU, will face No. 6 West Texas A&M for the fourth straight time in the tournament finals. The Lady Buffs also advanced with a five-set semifinal win over Texas A&M-Commerce. The championship match will be played at 2 p.m. on Saturday with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II tournament. It will be the 11th finals appearance in program history for the Belles.
 
The Belles (23-8) overcame a slow start for the second day in a row, but fought back and  forced a decisive fifth set after falling behind 2-1. ASU trailed 2-0 to start the fifth set, but rallied to take a 6-3 advantage and never trailed in the final set. Kaelen Valdez, who now has 1,004 kills in her career after providing 12 in the match, delivered the match-winner with a kill to end the contest.
 
Maddie Huth and Cerbi Ritchey led Angelo State with 16 kills each, while Maggi Jo Keffury established a new career high with 58 assists. Ritchey had three kills in the final set with Keffury and Huth adding two each. Huth had six kills and hit .714 in the first set. Haley Bianco added 17 digs and an ace with Shelby Wilt contributing 13 digs and Katie MacLeay nine.
 
ASU was outblocked 14-7 in the match, but had a 69-54 kill advantage. The Belles hit .343 in the fourth set to force a fifth where they hit .267 and limited the Pioneers to a .100 hitting percentage.
 
Courtney Bartusiak added 10 kills, including four in the second set which evened the match after the Belles had put themselves in a hole. ASU trailed the first set by as much as 16-6 but fought back to tie the set at 20. TWU closed out the set with a 25-21 win, but the comeback set the tone for a competitive night despite the Pioneers having six blocks in the opening set.
 
ASU struggled again in the third set, but established themselves early in the fourth set and had a 10-5 lead on a Ritchey kill off an assist from Keffury. The five-point margin remained at 15-10 on a Huth kill, but was trimmed to 18-16 on an ASU error. The Belles went on a 5-1 with the assistance of two TWU errors and the set ended with a Valdez kill.
 
Marcela Alves and Josie Santos led TWU with 16 kills each, while Chloe' Tate had nine blocks and Hillary Shaffer added another five rejections. Morgan Wilson provided 20 digs for the Pioneers who had an 80-78 dig advantage in the match. TWU (22-10) finished the match with a .207 hitting percentage.
 
ASU improved to 2-1 against TWU this season with the win after the two teams split their season series.