Hounds come up short against Angelo State

That elusive first Lone Star Conference win is proving hard to come by for Eastern New Mexico University's volleyball team, but the Greyhounds are still hanging with them.

Angelo State, locked in a five-team battle for the top of the LSC standings, had its hands full for about 1 ½ sets before pulling away to a 25-23, 25-17, 25-12 win over ENMU on Saturday at Greyhound Arena.

Sophomore outside hitter Elsa Lamphere paced a balanced attack for Angelo (17-3, 7-1 LSC) with 13 kills. ENMU led several times in the first set, including 17-15, but the Rambelles roared back held off the Greyhounds (8-15, 0-10) down the stretch.

ASU then pulled away in Games 2 and 3 after they were close for about half the sets.

"We didn't give up; I was proud of our effort," said ENMU coach Sia Poyer, whose squad pushed Texas-Permian Basin to the brink before losing in five sets on Friday night. "Every one of their hitters is a potential scorer."

Freshman libero Caleigh Enax earned a double-double for ASU with 20 digs and 11 assists. Meantime, senior middle blocker Gracelyn Stubbs posted seven kills, 13 assists and 10 digs for the Hounds, while senior libero Getsemani Carrasco had 14 digs and sophomore setter Kayla Ison also collected 13 assists.

The major difference was attack errors – 22 for ENMU, 10 for Angelo State.

"When they're passing well and playing good defense, they're hard to beat," Poyer said of the Rambelles, who are tied for second with West Texas A&M (17-2, 7-1) behind Arkansas-Fort Smith (16-3, 6-0). "Our serve-receive was good today, at least in the first two sets."

Veteran Rambelles coach Chuck Waddington, coming off his first losing season (11-18) in 16 campaigns at the school, including a three-set setback at home to ENMU, said his squad figured to be challenged.

"I think this is the deepest our conference has been in a while," he said. "I think there are 10 teams that can beat you on a given night, and maybe more, but there are only eight teams who make the (LSC) tournament.

"We have mostly the same players (as last year); it's just a different mentality. We spent a lot of time in the spring working on that with our seniors, and I give them a lot of credit."

There were eight ties and six lead changes in Game 1. ENMU ran off six points to erase an early 10-4 deficit, then eventually went up by two on a Rambelles attack error.

Senior outside hitter and Portales High grad Kinzie Davis delivered an ace to keep the Hounds in front 19-18, but two kills by senior outside hitter Evelyn Torres helped push Angelo back in front and Lamphere finished it with a kill on set point.

ENMU then pulled even 11-11 in Game 2 on another ace by Davis, but the Rambelles went on an 11-1 surge fueled by three kills from Lamphere, an ace from Ireland Ferguson and six ENMU errors. Senior middle blocker Gracelyn Stubbs' kill tied the third set 8-8 before ASU pulled away with a match-ending 15-3 run.

"What I like about Eastern is they play aggressive," Waddington said. "But I think our service pressure jumped up in sets two and three."

The weekend matches were the first two in an eight-match homestand for the Hounds, who host Texas A&M International at 6 p.m. on Friday and Texas A&M-Kingsville at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

ENMU women fourth – ENMU captured fourth place on the women's side over the weekend in the Frank Phillips College rodeo, conducted in Canadian, Texas.

Junior Shacie Marr accounted for 90 points for the Hounds, finishing second in the long round and fifth in the short round to notch fifth place overall.

Tabby Tomlinson was the only other ENMU performer to reach Saturday's final round. She was eighth in the barrel racing long round, then finished sixth in Saturday's short round to place seventh overall.

Meantime, senior Jordyn Everson was just short of the final round in goat-tying and breakaway roping.

Closest to making the finals for the men was junior Blasé Steffen, whose time of 9.4 seconds in tiedown roping left him two-10ths of a second short of advancing.

ENMU squads close out the fall portion of their schedule from Oct. 26-28 in the Texas Tech rodeo at Lubbock.

Men's soccer tops St. Ed's – ENMU tallied a pair of goals in a span of less than two minutes in the second half and won for the second consecutive time at Greyhound Stadium, beating St. Edward's 3-1 in LSC play.

Junior forward Nick Huenig scored on an assist from sophomore defender Felix Drizinsky in the 61st minute, making it 2-0, and junior midfielder Loris Tsiatsipi scored on a loose ball at the top of the box in the 63rd minute to all but put it out of reach.

ENMU (4-5-3, 2-1-1 LSC), which is currently third in the LSC behind Midwestern State (12-0-1, 4-0-0) and West Texas A&M (6-3-3, 3-0-1) scored in the 11th minute when sophomore forward Alexandre Meres directed a Drizinsky cross into the net. The Hilltoppers (0-7-4, 0-2-2) broke up sophomore goalkeeper Paul Waschkau's shutout when senior Martin Tellez tallied on a long shot from outside the box with under 12 minutes remaining.

The Hounds are at home for a 7:30 p.m. match today against Dallas Baptist as part of an LSC twin bill, with the ENMU women taking on Oklahoma Christian in the 5 p.m. lidlifter.

St. Mary's tops ENMU women – At San Antonio, the homestanding Rattlers broke away from a tie with two goals early in the second half and went on to a 3-1 LSC women's soccer win over ENMU.

St. Mary's (6-2-5, 5-1-1 LSC) took a 2-1 lead when senior Alexis Truitt headed in a corner kick by junior midfielder Barbara Smith. Then just over a minute later, sophomore forward Sydney Varela tallied her fifth goal of the campaign when Truitt found her in the middle of the box.

Freshman Malia Dominguez broke the scoring ice in the very first minute, taking a quick cross in the box from Truitt to beat ENMU senior keeper Samantha Jeffries. The Hounds (1-8-4, 0-6-1) tied it just before halftime when senior forward Brianna Eye found the net during a scramble for possession in the box.

Jeffries had six saves for ENMU, which was outshot on goal for the match 9-3.