Box Score
FORT WORTH, TX: The Texas Wesleyan University volleyball team (6-4) defeated the Southwestern Assemblies of God University Lions (4-4) 3-1 (25-21, 25-23, 23-25, 27-25) at the Sid Richardson Center on Tuesday night.
The Lady Lions jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the opening set with accurate hitting from Brittani Toole. The Lady Rams came out flat and let SAGU control the tempo of the set, but a few costly errors against SAGU gave room for the Lady Rams to make a run for the lead. Kristen Venhuizen led the charge as she tallied four kills late in the match to send Wesleyan over the top with a 25-23 first set comeback.
The second set was all Welseyan, as they led by as many as nine points (18-9). The Lady Lions charged late and gave the Lady Rams cause for concern, cutting the lead all the way down to 24-23, but Wesleyan took the set with a kill from Haelee Horne.
Wesleyan seemed to be in control in the third set, never trailing the Lady Lions until they took the lead at 22-21 by way of a Wesleyan error. The Lady Rams traded points with SAGU until a fluke kill from Jordan Briggs, who dug the ball back over the net, gave the Lady Lions the third set 25-23 win.
The Lady Rams and the Lady Lions battled it out in the fourth set, trading the lead until Wesleyan pushed their way past SAGU lead by Katherine Rosenbush who had five key kills late in the set and forced SAGU into errors to seal the match win for the Lady Rams.
“We played well overall”, said head coach Christy Clawson, “even though we let SAGU back in the match in the third set, our girls showed tremendous poise and focus to finish. Evoni (Darling) did a great job spreading the offense and the defense was solid.”
The Lady Rams finished with three girls posting double doubles, and five players in double digit digs. Evoni Darling led the Lady Rams with 53 assists, 16 digs, and two aces. Rosenbush led all players with 18 kills. Venhuizen had 14 kills, 16 digs, and two aces in the match. Horne finished with 12 kills and 10 digs in the win.
The Lady Rams head to Lamoni, Iowa, to play in the Graceland Tournament September 10-11, game times and opponents to be announced.
