11/13/2021 | Women’s Volleyball | Box Score

PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico closed out the regular season with a 3-0 sweep of Texas Women’s on Senior Day on Saturday afternoon at Greyhound Arena. The win sends Eastern into the LSC Conference Championship tournament opening round. With the win, the Greyhounds move to 7-18 on the season, while holding a conference record of 7-10. Texas Women’s end their season at 10-18, with a 5-12 standing in conference.

The opening frame saw each team trade points, locking the score at 10-10. From then, the Pioneers pulled out a 10-4 rally to give themselves a 20-14 advantage. ENMU replied with a small run of their own, but Texas Women’s reached set point 24-20. An Adriana Puni kill swung the serve to Rae Sapiga, with the score at 24-21 TWU. TWU thought they had won the first set, but a challenge review from ENMU turned a Pioneer’s kill into a Greyhound point. At that moment, ENMU closed the set on an 8-1 run, winning the set 27-25. Jasmine Gannon found two kills in the closing stages, while Puni added a kill late in the set.

Texas Women’s trailed at the start of the second set 14-5, but tallied nine straight points to bring the set even, 14-14. However, the Greyhounds responded with a 7-0 streak to rebuild its lead, pitting the score at 21-14. ENMU closed out the second stanza 25-14 with Puni and Gracelyn Stubbs finding the final two kills.

Eastern would control the opening stages of the third set, jumping out to a 7-4 advantage. The Greyhounds then tacked on a 4-0 run, and later found a 5-0 stretch to boost the score to 19-8. The Hounds would cruise their way through the remainder of the set, eventually winning 25-18, and taking the match 3-0.

NOTABLE STATS

  • TWU out paced the Hounds in kills, 39-35, while ENMU had more assists, 37-34.
  • The Pioneers held the edge in terms of digs and blocks, 40-37 in digs, 7-2 for blocks.
  • Gannon supplied a team high 11 kills, while Mikaela Garvin contributed eight kills in the effort.
  • R. Sapiga led Eastern in assists with 20, while Qitana Sapiga posted 13 assists on the afternoon.
  • Daejia Rodriguez was the leader in defense with 11 digs, with Gannon adding eight digs to the cause.
  • Puni, Stubbs, and Garvin all had one block in the match.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

  • ENMU Volleyball recognized Gannon and R. Sapiga for Senior Day before the start of the match.
  • Texas Women’s still hold a series advantage 26-21 over Eastern.
  • The Greyhounds bested the Pioneers for the first time since 2017, when the Hounds beat TWU 3-0 on Nov. 3rd.
  • Eastern will now wait for the full release of the 2021 LSC Volleyball Championships by the conference office. The Hounds will be on the road on Tuesday evening as part of the opening round, and their opponent is to be determined.