Box Score  





FORT WORTH, TX: The Texas Wesleyan University volleyball team (3-8, 1-0 SAC) picked up a solid home win (25-19, 25-11, 25-18) over Mid-America Christian University (2-10, 0-2 SAC) to open conference play at the Sid Richardson Center on Tuesday.
 
It was the first 3-0 win for the Lady Rams of the season as Texas Wesleyan has had a very competitive non-conference schedule to open the season.
 
The Evangel grabbed a 4-1 lead to start the match on a few Ram miscues, but Wesleyan quickly tied the game at 5-5 on a Shelby Stinnett service ace. The slow start was quickly erased on a 6-0 run capped by a Meghan Finley spike to make it a 12-6 Lady Ram lead. The Evangels cut the lead to 18-15 with a Hannah Luedtke kill, and more Wesleyan mistakes allowed Mid-America Christian to bring the score to a one point deficit at 19-18. Texas Wesleyan got back on track with three consecutive kills capped by a Kiersten Mebane throw down for a 25-19 win.
 
Texas Wesleyan busted the second set wide open with a 9-2 run to start, capped by an Alex Hendee kill. The Evangels made their own 6-0 run that ended with a Shannon Niemeier kill to make it a 9-8 game.  Another huge 8-0 run for the Rams capped by a Mebane kill gave Wesleyan an 18-9 lead. Texas Wesleyan took a 7-2 run to take a 25-11 win on a Bre Blackburn smash.
 
The third set was a bit more competitive, as the Evangels kept the Lady Rams from pulling away. Wesleyan steadily extended the lead with a 9-4 run to make it a 17-11 game. The Evangels cut the lead to four at 19-15, but that was as close as Mid-America Christian could make it, as Stinnett tallied the match point kill for a 25-18 third set win.

"Getting a three set win tonight was really big for us," said head coach Kimberly Weaver after the win, "is gives us momentum going into our weekend match with Wayland Baptist and it gets us off to a great start in conference. Our offense was impressive and we were able to put several runs together behind the serving of Shelby Stinnett and Abby Zipoy. Our team executed the game plan very well and I am happy they were able to see their execution reflected on the scoreboard."
 
The Lady Rams hit .296 in the match and notched a season high .440 hitting percentage in the second set.
 
Finley, Stinnett, and Hendee led the Rams with nine kills apiece.  Lauren Hamaker tallied 19 assists, while Kristina Gafford posted 18 assists in the balanced attack. Abigail Zipoy led all players with 14 digs.
 
The Lady Rams travel to Plainview, TX to play a match against #11 Wayland Baptist University on Saturday, September 20 starting at 11:00 am.