By: Mason Bua | Sports Writer

The No. 20 Texas A&M University-Commerce Lions volleyball team kicked off conference play last weekend by sweeping the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Javelinas and the Texas A&M University-International Dustdevils over Friday and Saturday.

The Lions started the weekend sweeping TAMUK with set scores of 25-20, 25-22, 25-20. The victory takes the Lions to 6-3, with a 1-0 in Lone Star Conference play.

The backline of TAMUC’s defense performed spectacularly for the duration of the match with Riley Davidson and Savannah Rutledge accounting for 15 digs each, and Daniela Santos chipping in with 13 of her own. The team as a whole had 65 digs in three sets.

Offensively, TAMUC had spurts of hot streaks and cold streaks, unable to maintain momentum for too long. They did, however, make multiple runs of three, four, or even five points at a time to separate from TAMUK. Sydney Anderson led the way with 14 kills and was the only player for the Lions to eclipse 10 total kills.

On Saturday, against TAMUI the Lions completed their second sweep with scores of 25-13, 25-21, 25-12. To move on to their current record of 7-3 and 2-0 in conference play.

The Lions dominated this match, out-scoring the Dustdevils 75-46 throughout the affair. The points were distributed evenly throughout the team. Shelley Chapron led the Lions with 11 kills, Sydney Anderson had 7, Bina Njikam and Maiya Dickie each had 8 kills.

The Lions defense was formidable against the Dustdevils, securing 11 blocks and 50 digs. Shelley Chapron led with 6 blocks, with Bina Njikam adding to 5 blocks. The backline had a great showcase, with Savannah Rutledge digging a team-high 17 digs, and Riley Davidson adding 10 of her own.

“Last night (Friday) we upped our offensive play by responding against a really great defense,” Lions Head Coach Craig Case said when asked about the teams play. “Today, we responded to a really good offense by playing better defense. What’s promising about that is that we played really well and we need to continue to do that if we want to keep winning matches”.

After the game over the weekend the Javelinas move to 8-4, with an 0-1 conference record and the Dustdevils fall to 2-7 on the season with a 0-2 record in conference play.

Next Matchup

Up next the Lions will travel for a pair of weekend games. They will play the first on Friday at 6 p.m. in Wichita Falls, Tx against Midwestern State at D.L. Ligon Colesium and the second beginning at noon on Saturday in Denton, Tx at Kitty Magee Arena against Texas Woman’s.