Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Zias hurt possible playoff seeding with loss to Commerce

Staff report

The Eastern New Mexico University volleyball team couldn’t overcome several long runs by Texas A&M-Commerce on Friday night, and as a result hurt their potential seeding in next week’s Lone Star Conference tournament by losing to the Lions 25-14, 25-18, 25-22 at Greyhound Arena.

ENMU (12-17, 4-11 LSC) had the No. 6 spot in next week’s eight-team tourney going in, but probably won’t finish there after the Lions (7-21, 4-11) improved their position heading into today’s final regular-season matches.

Amy Davault had 14 kills and 14 digs for the Lions, who led most of the way.

Tied 9-9 in the first set, Commerce blew out the Zias with a 16-5 run to take a 1-0 lead. ENMU had leads of 3-0 and 8-7 in the second set before an 8-1 run put the Lions back in control.

The Zias mounted a late charge in the third, closing a 24-19 deficit with a three-point run that included a double-block by Brooklyn Biel and Bree Lucero, but a Zias blocking error closed out the match.

Senior middle blocker Agatha Gibbons recorded 11 kills, but the Zias committed 28 attack errors to 17 for Commerce in a match that was otherwise relatively even.

ENMU wraps up LSC and regular-season play at 1 p.m. today against Texas Woman’s. The Zias need to beat the Pioneers and have Commerce lose at first-place West Texas A&M to claim the No. 6 seed in next week’s league get-together.

 
 

Thank you for reading.

Already have an account? Sign in.

Subscribers have FULL, immediate access to https://easternnewmexiconews.com and only need to subscribe online. Non-subscribers have limited access.