Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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.