OKLAHOMA CITY, OK: The Texas Wesleyan University volleyball team (10-14, 6-3 SAC) earned a conference road match 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 16-25, 25-20) over Mid-America Christian University (3-18, 1-8 SAC) at the Gaulke Activity Center on Tuesday.
 
The Lady Rams faced a vastly improved Evangel team than their previous meeting in which the Rams won rather handedly 3-0, and MACU never scored more than 19 points in each of those sets. Tonight the Evangels scored more than 19 points in all four sets.
 
The Evangels held on to a very slim lead until the Lady Rams finally tied the game at 16-16 on a Lynsay Buell kill. The Evangels fought to keep the lead until an Abigail Zipoy kill gave Wesleyan their first lead since the early goings at 20-19. Mid-America Christian regained the lead 23-22 on a few Ram errors, prompting head coach Kimberly Weaver to take a timeout. Two big kills from Shelby Stinnett and Alex Hendee lifted the Rams to a 24-23 lead, and a MACU error gave Texas Wesleyan a 25-23 win.
 
The two teams played very tight to start the second set, as the game was tied ten times before the Evangels were able to sneak in a 3-0 burst on a run of Lady Ram errors to lead 16-13. MACU extended the lead 19-15, until a 6-2 Lady Ram rally capped by a Hendee kill tied the set at 21-21. Texas Wesleyan finished the comeback on a Buell kill to won the set 25-22.
 
Another tightly contested start was the tune of the third set early, as the two teams were knotted up at 7-7. MACU took a 10-3 run from there to gain a seven-point, 17-10 lead. Texas Wesleyan could only muster six more points the rest of the way as the Evangels finally wore down the Wesleyan defense to take the third set, 25-16.
 
The Lady Rams got back on track in the fourth set, jumping out to an 8-3 lead on a Buell kill. Texas Wesleyan extended the lead to 14-7 after a Stinnett kill, but the Evangels charged back on a 7-0 run to tie the game 14-14. The two teams battled relentlessly for possession of the lead, but after the Evangels tied the game at 20-20, Wesleyan broke loose on a 5-0 run capped by a Starnisha Bodie solo block to win the set 25-20.
 
Hendee led with 12 kills and 10 digs for the Lady Rams. Buell notched 11 kills and three block assists. Stinnett posted 10 kills and 13 digs. Shaughnessy Hearn led the team with 20 digs. Lauren Hamaker tallied a double double on 37 assists and 10 digs.
 
The Lady Rams will take on #25 Wayland Baptist University on Saturday, October 18. The match is set for a 1:00 pm start in the Sid Richardson Center.