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FORT WORTH, TX: The Texas Wesleyan University volleyball team (2-3) picked up their first home victory in three sets (25-21, 25-23, 25-21) against the Brenau University Golden Tigers (0-3) on the first day of the Fourth Annual Wesleyan Hughes Classic on Friday Night.
The two teams proved to be evenly match to start the first set as the game was tied a total of ten times, each team jockeying for position. The Lady Rams got some help from Lynsay Buell late in the set to give Wesleyan a 25-21 first set win.
The Lady Rams never led by more than four points in the second set, but seemed to be in control of the game throughout. Kristen Venhuizen scored with a kill that gave Wesleyan a 13-17 lead, but Brenau battled back and tied the set at 18-18 with a kill from Danalle Russell. The Lady Rams held on to take set two 25-23.
The Golden Tigers leaped out to an 8-3 lead in the third set led by Meredith Hardin. The Lady Rams fought back to even the score five times before finally taking the lead at 13-12 and never looking back, Venhuizen and Hannah Horton leading the charge for Wesleyan. “It was a great first home win,” said head coach Christy Clawson, “we did a good job of coming back in game three because of mental toughness. We had a great tempo throughout the match and our girls were well prepared and ready. We did a good job playing in our system and trusting each other, I’m very pleased.”
Evoni Darling led Wesleyan with 32 assists and 11 digs in the win. Venhuizen tacked on 10 kills on the night, and Buell added nine kills for the Lady Rams. Horton had a good night with 10 kills two service aces, six digs, and two block assists.
Other matches of the day included Loyola New Orleans (2-1) over Brenau in three sets (25-13, 25-19, 25-17), UT-Brownsville (2-0) over Mid-America Christian (1-1) in three sets (25-6, 25-9, 25-7), Loyola New Orleans over SAGU (0-1) in four sets (25-20, 19-25, 25-18, 25-15), Mid America Christian over Brenau in four sets (25-18, 25-21, 21-25, 25-21), and UT-Brownsville over Loyola New Orleans in four sets (25-8, 21-25, 25-15, 25-17).
The Lady Rams take on Loyola New Orleans at 3:00pm and Mid America Christian at 7:00pm on Saturday in the second day of the Hughes-Wesleyan Classic.
