FORT WORTH, TX: The Texas Wesleyan University volleyball team (21-10, 11-3 SAC) dropped a hard fought 3-2 match to conference leader #25 Wayland Baptist University (25-7, 14-1 SAC) at the Sid Richardson Center on Saturday.
 
After coming off a fantastic win over Oklahoma City last night, one would think that the Lady Rams would start the match a bit sluggish, and understandably so, but the Lady Rams came out with fire and ready for another battle.
 
 Alanna Hayhurst picked up a kill to put Wesleyan up 5-1. Abby Zipoy made it a 7-3 lead on a thunderous kill. The Pioneers snared a few points together to and tied the game 9-9 with a pair of Cindy Horn kills. The set was tightly contested from there, until the Lady Rams sneakily grabbed a 21-17 lead on another Zipoy kill. Wayland Baptist surged on a 6-1 run to tie the game at 23 apiece, but Starnisha Bodie and Shelby Stinnett teamed up with a pair of kills to take the set.
 
The Pioneers held a 4-2 lead to start the second set, but the Rams quickly tied the set and kept it that way four times until Wayland made a 9-2 run capped by a Shahala Hawkins kill to make it a 15-9 tilt. WBU made a service error before they continued with another 7-0 rally to take a 22-10 lead. The Lady Rams could not post a comeback, dropping the set 25-12.
 
The Lady Rams recovered nicely in the third set, showing good resolve and not letting the last set influence the job in front of them. Zipoy kept the Rams ahead with a steady diet of kills that stymied the Wayland offense. She tallied eight in the set and spurred a 4-2 clip capped by a Kristina Gafford kill to make it a 13-8 advantage, prompting a WBU timeout. Wesleyan kept the pressure on and made it a 17-11 game on a Stinnett ace. The Rams outscored their opponent 8-5 the rest of the way and Keirsten Mebane capped the set with a kill to win it 25-16.
 
The top team in the conference had their backs against the wall and took control of the fourth set now knowing they had a difficult task on their hands. The Pioneers grabbed a 6-2 lead, helped by a few TWU errors. Bodie and Zipoy teamed up on a pair of kills coming out of a timeout that cut the lead to 6-4, but that would be as close as the home team would get. Wayland had a 5-0 rally that made it a 19-10 game. The Rams did have a 4-0 run capped by a pair of Alanna Hayhurst kills to bring the deficit to 19-14, but the Pioneers played safe and did not give any silly errors on the way to a 25-18 win to send the game into a fifth set.
 
Hawkins posted the first kill to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead to start the fifth. Bodie fought back and smashed a kill to tie it at 1-1. Hawkins led two more strikes to the floor and Wayland found a 7-3 lead. A Zipoy kill made it an 8-5 game and a pair of Stinnett kills cut the lead to 11-7, but Wayland Baptist took a 4-0 rally to push their way to a 3-2 match win.
 
The Pioneers tallied 16 total team blocks in the match, while Wesleyan only had four. TWU won in kills 66-59, but those 16 WBU blocks helped contribute to 32 attacking errors, while the Pioneers only committed 12 attacking errors.
 
Zipoy led all players with a career high 31 kills hitting .380, and tallied her ninth consecutive double-double with 20 digs. She also added three service aces. Gafford posted a double-double with a career high 57 assists and 11 digs. Bodie notched 11 kills in the match. Shaughnessy Hearn played an outstandingly consistent game and posted a career high 46 digs.
 

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Ramblings
 
-The Lady Rams were 4-0 in five set matches heading into the game today
-The All-Time series with Wayland is now 11-11
-Hearn leads the conference with 621 digs and is ranked 12th in Division I in digs per game with 5.640