Aggies sweep Lions, but playoffs out

COMMERCE, Texas (November 6) – It was a night of highs and lows for the Cameron Aggie volleyball team (14-12, 5-7 LSC) who tonight swept the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions (15-10, 7-5 LSC) 3-0 on the road in Commerce, Texas. Cameron outplayed their foes in nearly every aspect of the match and won 25-11, 26-24, 25-20. With one match left, CU secured an above-.500 final record but unfortunately was eliminated from postseason contention.

“I think overall we played well,” Head Coach Brianne Smedley said. “We definitely put together a more complete match tonight. All of our skills were on for most of the match and that’s what got us the victory.”

Cameron started the match on fire and never let A&M-Commerce back into it. The Aggies finished the 2007 season with a sub-.500 record for the first time in thirteen years, but look to start another twelve-year run of consecutive above-.500 seasons this year.

“One of our collective goals was to have a winning season so it was great to clinch that tonight,” Coach Smedley said. “We obviously want to make our final record a match better so we definitely want to win on Saturday. I’m very happy that we have accomplished one of our team goals tonight.”

Heading into this week, the Aggies needed multiple matches to go their way in order to clinch another Lone Star Conference postseason berth. Not only did CU need to win their final two conference matches this week, but they needed Southeastern Oklahoma State to lose both of their final matches and Central Oklahoma to lose their final match. This evening SOSU lost their match, but UCO won theirs effectively eliminating the Aggies.

“We did what we could tonight and we took care of business,” Coach Smedley said. “Even though we didn’t make the playoffs we can say we did all we could do.”

The Aggies recorded a solid .130 hitting percentage in the match and limited the Lions to just a .025 attack percentage. Additionally, Cameron recorded more kills than A&M-Commerce, 37-25, and out-blocked the Lions, 7-2. TAMUC did however manage to out-dig CU, 73-65.

Junior right-side hitter Lindsay Paziuk led the match offensively and was the only player in the entire match to finish with a double-digit kill total. She finished with 10 kills (2 errors) on 31 attacks for a .258 attack percentage. Paziuk also recorded 11 defensive digs, 2 assists, 2 block-assists, 2 block solos, and a service ace.

“(Lindsay) Paziuk started off the evening with a couple of huge blocks that really spurred us on to the first set victory,” Coach Smedley said. “Her blocks definitely made the other team more hesitant with their attacks.”

Senior middle blocker Whitney Long also had a great match at the net as she posted 9 kills (2 errors) on 23 attacks for a match-high .304 attack percentage. She also recorded a defensive dig and a block-assist.

Junior setter Laura Ellerbrock led the match in the assist category after she recorded 30 assists. Ellerbrock also finished with 7 defensive digs and a match-high 3 service aces.

Cameron’s final match of the season takes place this Saturday at 2:00pm in Denton, Texas, against the Pioneers of Texas Woman’s University.