AUSTIN, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' volleyball team won a pair of matches at the American Southwest Conference Crossover on Friday in Austin, beating Belhaven 25-14, 18-25, 25-17, 26-24 and rallying to beat UT-Tyler 21-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-19, 15-13.
HSU 3, Belhaven 1
The Cowgirls came out and took the opening game by hitting .341. The Cowgirls led the entire game. In the second game used a 4-0 run midway through the game to get an advantage and held on to the game.
In the third game the Cowgirls jumped to an early 10-3 lead, forcing a timeout by the Blazers and maintained the lead throughout the game. HSU used a 5-1 run to take a 21-16 in the final game before Belhaven came back to tie it at 24. The Cowgirls closed it out with kills by
Shayleigh Haas and Allsion Kuster.
Grace Schulz led the Cowgirls with 14 kills in the match and Kuster added nine.
Ashley Pierce had 19 assists in the match.
Lauren Wish had 22 digs and
Leecia DePaula added 12. Schulz led a strong Cowgirl block with six blocks. She also had five of the 11 HSU service aces.
HSU 3, UT-Tyler 2
After falling behind 2-0 after the first two games, Hardin-Simmons rallied to win the final three games and win the match.
HSU won games three and four by comfortable margins and carried over the momentum to the fifth game.
In the final game, the Cowgirls jumped to an 8-3 lead and pushed it out to a 14-9 advantage before the Patriots scored four straight points to make it 14-13. After a timeout, HSU won the final point to win the match.
Kuster led the Cowgirls with 13 kills and also added a team-high 19 digs. Megan Bauer and
Morgan Prince added 11 kills each.
Ashley Pierce had 24 kills and
Rebekah Hayes added 21. Pierce also added 10 digs for a double-double.
Lauren Wish had 18 digs for the Cowgirls.
The Cowgirls had a big night at the net with 17 team blocks, including 12 block assists by Schulz. The 34 block assists were also a school record as was the 12 block assists by Schulz.
The Cowgirls are now 6-6 on the year and 2-1 in ASC action. The game against Belhaven does not count in the league standings, the Blazers are now 6-8. UT-Tyler is now 9-4 overall and 1-3 in ASC play.
HSU will close the crossover against East Texas Baptist at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
