Box Score
FORT WORTH, TX: The Texas Wesleyan University volleyball team (14-17) won a close 3-2 battle (15-25, 25-10, 23-25, 25-15, and 16-14) against Southern Nazarene University (21-13) Tuesday night at the Sid Richardson Center.  

In the first set the Crimson Storm stunned the Lady Rams, jumping out to a 19-9 lead. Southern Nazarene kept the ten point advantage, leading 23-13 late in the first set. Poor hitting and untimely errors plagued the Lady Rams, taking a 25-15 loss in the first game.

Texas Wesleyan took off to a better start in game two and proved the first set was a fluke, maintaining a slight lead through the first half of the second set. That lead grew as Wesleyan charged to a 20-9 lead. The Lady Rams simply commanded the court, dominating the net to zoom past the Crimson Storm 25-10 in a game that took only fifteen minutes to complete. The Lady Rams improved dramatically from hitting .047 in the first game, to .269 in the second set. Southern Nazarene went the opposite way, .250 to -.152. 

The third set was a tighter match with both teams trading the lead early. After being tied at 9-9, the Lady Rams went on a 9-3 run to take the lead at 18-12. The Crimson Storm started chipping at the lead with a 10-2 swing and eventually found a 22-20 lead. Wesleyan did not go quietly, but could not stop the Crimson Storm from taking a 25-23 game three win.

The fourth set went much like the second set for the Lady Rams, with another dominating performance led by Haelee Horne and Jennifer Kline who combined for 11 kills and two blocks. The Rams hit .242 while Southern Nazarene struggled, hitting -.056. Wesleyan cruised to a 25-15 fourth set win to send the match to a fifth set. 

The fifth set was way too close for comfort for either team as the score was deadlocked twice as many times as the first four sets combined. The Crimson tide were the first to take more than a one point lead at 13-11, but the Lady Rams regrouped after a timeout and Kline tallied a kill to tie the game at 13 apiece. Southern Nazarene took a timeout to talk it over and came out with a kill by Ellen Martin that gave the Crimson Storm a 14-13 match point advantage, but the senior Kristen Venhuizen threw down a kill to tie the game at 14 all. A Southern Nazarene attack error gave Wesleyan the lead and a service ace from Katherine Rosenbush sealed the 16-14, 3-2 match victory for the Lady Rams.

Evoni Darling led Texas Wesleyan with a double-double behind 42 assists and 14 digs. Horne notched a double-double with 16 kills and 15 digs. Kline tallied 12 kill and five block assists, while Rosenbush followed with eight kills, and six block assists. Marissa Rangel had 15 digs and Stephanie Dominguez had 15 digs in the win. 

The Lady Rams honored its seniors, Kristen Venhuizen and Evoni Darling before the match as both players played the last regular season home game of their careers.

Venhuizen is an outside hitter from Austin, TX. In four years she has accumulated 808 kills, 1,128 digs, 168 service aces, 121 blocks, and 17 double doubles. Venhuizen has been an All-Conference selection the last two seasons. This season she has achieved seven double doubles, reaching double figures in kills 10 times, and double figures in digs 14 times. She tallied a career high 18 kills against John Brown University last season and a career high 20 digs against the University of Sioux Falls and Our Lady of the Lake University this season. She has matched her career high and currently leads the team with 242 kills. 

Darling is a setter from Grapevine, TX. In her four years she has been the backbone of the Lady Ram offense racking up a spectacular 3,785 assists. She has also racked 1,241 digs, 167 kills, 128 aces, and 93 blocks in her stint at Wesleyan. She has tallied an impressive 50 career double doubles. A two-time All-Conference selection, she received Red River Athletic Conference Setter of the Year as a freshman after posting a Lady Ram record 1,853 assists and 528 digs. That year she set a career high with 58 assists in a match against Lubbock Christian. She also posted a triple double against the Lady Chaps with 10 kills, 42 assists, and 16 digs. This season Darling has tallied 908 assists and 272 digs.

The Lady Rams jump back into conference play and travel to Marshall, TX, to take on Wiley College on Friday, November 5 at 5:00 p.m.