Hounds sweep Pioneers to play way into LSC tourney

PORTALES — With a spot in the Lone Star Conference tournament on the line, Eastern New Mexico University’s volleyball team took care of business on Saturday with a 27-25, 25-18, 25-18 victory over Texas Woman’s at Greyhound Arena.

ENMU (7-18, 7-10 LSC) won for the sixth time in nine matches. The Greyhounds earned the No. 11 seed in the tourney — the top 12 of 18 teams in the conference qualify — and they get a rematch of Friday’s five-set home loss to Dallas Baptist, this time on the Lady Patriots’ home floor.

The top four seeds earn opening-round byes and advance to Thursday’s semifinals. Conference champion and top seed Angelo State will host the final three days of the tournament at San Angelo, Texas, with the championship match slated for Saturday.

Senior outside hitter Jasmine Gannon led the Hounds with 11 kills and eight digs, while junior setter Rae Sapiga had 20 assists and sophomore libero Daejia Rodriguez collected 11 digs.

Junior outside hitter Addison Mulroney had 11 kills and four aces for Texas Woman’s, while senior middle blocker Trixie Oche combined six kills and five total blocks (two solos).

TWU (10-18, 5-12), which was hoping to reach the tourney on a tiebreaker with a victory, opened a 20-14 lead in Game 1 and got to set point at 24-20 before the Hounds went on a 7-1 blitz, with Gannon and junior middle blocker Adriana Puni each posting a pair of kills in that stretch.

The Pioneers erased a 14-5 deficit in the second set with a 9-0 run, but ENMU answered with seven consecutive tallies and closed it out with back-to-back kills from sophomore middle blocker Gracelyn Stubbs. Then, leading 7-4 in the third, the Hounds put together stretches of 4-0 and 5-0 to go up 19-8 and cruised the rest of the way.