Hounds hoping to pull LSC volleyball upset

PORTALES — The Eastern New Mexico Greyhound volleyball team has overcome the obvious growing pains of youth and inexperience during its 2017 campaign to qualify for this year’s Lone Star Conference Tournament. The No. 8 Greyhounds (12-18, 9-11 LSC) will face host team and No. 1-seed Tarleton State tonight at 7:30, in the first round of the LSC’s single-elimination tournament.

For the Hounds, it will be the second time in five days that they’ll face the TexAnns (26-5, 18-2) — the conference’s top team and the No. 15 team in Division II.

In two previous meetings thus far, things haven’t gone so well for Eastern, as it has been swept 3-0 in each matchup. For Hounds coach Sia Poyer, the biggest challenge when facing Tarleton is how well-rounded of a team the TexAnns happen to be.

“It’s gonna be tough. (Tarleton) is the No. 1 seed and they’re at home. But, it doesn’t change our plan of getting out there and stealing a win,” Poyer explained. “They’re good all the way around — their setter (Jordyn Keamo) is the best in the conference and their outside hitter, Hailey Roberts, is not just the best player in the conference, but the best in the region.

“They don’t have any weak spots, and all of their other players besideS Roberts are all solid. They can score, they can pass and they’re tall. We go in just thinking that with it being tournament time, records don’t matter and anything can happen.”

The aforementioned Roberts is a 6-foot senior out of Cedar Park, TX., who was an AVCA First-Team All-American a year ago and is well on her way to being named a first-teamer once again in 2017. In 104 sets played this year, Roberts has 474 kills and 2,319 in her illustrious four-year career, overall.

As for Keamo, the native-Hawaiian is a former junior college transfer who was awarded the LSC’s Setter of the Year in 2016, after recording 1,279 assists and 312 digs. So far in 2017, the 5-8 Keamo has 1,000 assists and 291 digs.

Needless to say, a de facto road match will be a challenge for the Hounds. Nonetheless, Poyer has noticed growth from his youngsters this season, start to finish.

“We’ve got three freshmen in our starting lineup and even Sarah (Tuioti-Mariner) — we count on her to produce kills as a sophomore,” Poyer said. “We’ve gone through our growing pains, and our conference is hard. But, we’ve also had some bright spots, like beating Angelo State and making the LSC tournament. There’s so much parity in our league from No. 3 on down.”

Tuioti-Mariner is one of multiple players that Poyer highlighted as his breakout — or surprise, player in 2017. Tuioti-Mariner is playing all over the court for the first time in her career, but has nonetheless excelled, recording 298 kills and 216 digs.

The 5-10 Californian is joined by a couple of other pleasant surprises, such as Marissa Ellis and Jasmine Gannon. The freshmen outside hitters have played an important role in the team’s growth, as Ellis (5-10) has contributed 209 digs and 114 kills, while Gannon (6-1), a Texico grad, has 255 kills of her own.

While the record may not blow people away, Poyer sees this year as a success. “I always (see every year as a success). I really try not to look at stats, (but rather) I try to look at younger players and how far they’ve come,” Poyer explained.

“Our younger players are getting a huge taste of the strength and conditioning program, and that plays a big part in their growth. We’ve also continued to improve our recruiting to become an even better team. Our future is bright.”