Waxahachie, TX: For the Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) Volleyball Tournament championship, the Texas Wesleyans Rams matched up as the No. 2 seed to face the No. 1 seed Southwestern Assemblies of God University. The two best teams in the SAC competed in round three of a cross town rivalry game, featuring players with All-SAC honors and awards.
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The Rams took down the Lions in four sets, 24-26, 25-15, 26-24, and 25-23 to win the final round of the Sooner Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament and claim their first ever championship win in program history.
In set one the regular season champions would jump out to a quick 8-0 lead over Texas Wesleyan. With the home court advantage, it appeared as though SAGU would run away with the set before the Rams would go on a run to capture their first lead of the set at 16-15. The Rams would continue to dominate in the second half of the set as the Lions found themselves trailing 24-22. A service error by the Rams would give the Lions a little bit of life and they would go on to close out the game scoring four straight points to win 26-24.
Set two would find the two teams battling early before Texas Wesleyan would pull away once they hit the 15-point mark. The Rams would begin an offensive assault that the Lions were unable to stop. Hannah Rubis would lead the Rams in kills as they cruised to a 25-15 set victory. The Rams would hit .273 in the set behind 19 kills.
In the third set, it was another tightly contested set as each team put together run after run until Texas Wesleyan was able to escape the last three points of the set on SAGU errors to win 26-24.
Texas Wesleyan would enter the fourth set scoring the first four points to take an early 4-0 lead. They went on to extend their lead to 15-8 halfway through the set before the Lions cut the lead to 19-16 after an attack error by the Rams. Texas Wesleyan pushed the lead to 24-20 but SAGU would not go away easily as they would cut the lead to 24-23. Texas Wesleyan would hold strong and were  able to close out the match as they scored the final point to take the set 25-23 and the championships 3-1.
The Rams The rams would hit .153 in the win with a total of 50 kills off 176 attempts with just 23 errors. Senior
Sydney Charlton and freshman
Hanna Rubis led the Rams with 12 Kills.
Malia Linton and
Carly Unruh came up big at the net with five blocks while
Andrea Malek ran the back line with 34 digs to lead all players. Both teams will participate in the NAIA National Women's Volleyball Championship and will await the announcement Monday afternoon as to where they will be playing next weekend.
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The 2023 SAC Volleyball All-Tournament Team:
Tournament MVP –
Andrea Malek, TXWES
Sydney Charlton, TXWES
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