DENTON, TEXAS - Texas Woman's faced off against Lone Star Conference rival West Texas A&M Saturday, losing a closely-fought match in five sets (25-13, 14-25, 14-25, 25-17, 15-10).
 
The Pioneer trio of juniors Maggie Pyles and Katy Ranes, and freshman Trixie Oche set up a significant defense in the first set, returning several Lady Buff (11-7, 6-4 LSC) attacks that sent the team scrambling to recover the ball, but TWU errors prevented any meaningful headway. The Lady Buffs strung together a six-point scoring run that gave them a 10-point lead at 8-18. Despite some recovery thanks to multiple late-set kills by freshman Elizabeth Ugbaja, West Texas ended the set on a seven-point run that included three service aces by Selena Batiste at 25-13.
 
The second set saw a change in both teams, as TWU (12-8, 4-6 LSC) managed to clean up most of its error problem, and WT developed one of their own. The Pioneers' hitting percentage jumped in the second set from .026 to .359, with Frederick, Pyles and Ugbaja giving them a hefty lead through the second half of the set before a Pyles kill ended things in TWU's favor at 25-14.
 
Texas Woman's kept up momentum in the third set, further improving their hitting percentage to .436 and maintaining a lead through most of the set. Through increased blocking and attacking, the Pioneers took the set, 25-14, with a Pyles' kill. 

"In the first three sets, especially, we did a good job of making quality blocking decisions, getting in front of the right players at the right times," Head coach Jeff Huebner said. "I think that we did a pretty good job defensively, we out-dug them by 21 digs and they're the best defensive team in the conference." 

The Lady Buffs were reinvigorated in the fourth set, battling for domination in a set that saw four lead changes. The Pioneers were inconsistent in their execution and started to lose control of errors again. Their attack slipped to a .135 hitting percentage and they could not prevent the Lady Buffs from taking the set, 25-17.
 
This pattern would continue in the fifth, where WT earned a quick 7-2 lead after four TWU attack errors in a row. Despite strong efforts by Noel and Pyles to beat back the Lady Buffs with kills, they were unable to stop their momentum and dropped the set, 15-10.

"It was a really close not-close match," Huebner said. "For us, I think it was just sideout percentage, we didn't serve or pass well enough. When you look at our percent, it was around 40 to 45 in the sets that we lost, and in the sets that we won they were around 40 percent, so it just came down to first-touch skill sets."

Hitting at an overall .224, the Pioneers tallied 66 kills to the Lady Buffs' 50, with Ugbaja leading the game with 20. Shortly behind Ugbaja in kills was Pyles with 15, who also brought home a double-double with her 21 digs, and Frederick, who reached a season high with her 15 kills. 

"It's good to see [Frederick]," Huebner said, "She's having fun out there. She brings some good energy to our team when she's playing like that and we're excited to see her continue to grow and develop."

Junior Bailey French also notched a season-high 39 digs, just one behind all-time leader senior Makayla Mayfield in 2016.
 
Texas Woman's faces off against Cameron in Lawton, Okla., Tuesday at 6 p.m. to begin the second half of the Lone Star Conference season.