Portales, N.M. – Jenna Risoli and Kathryn Evans’ career night was not enough against Eastern New Mexico, losing in five sets tonight (29-27, 16-25, 26-24, 21-25, 9-15) in Greyhound Arena.
“We played some great defense at times tonight but we didn’t do enough at the net,” said head coach Doug Tabbert. “There were too many unforced errors tonight and we were inconsistent offensively.“
“I thought that we had a respectable lead late in the fourth and faded down the stretch, and then we just didn’t play well in the fifth set.”
Cameron in the first set dug themselves in to an early 4-8 hole to the Zias and then went on a 7-1 run after a pair of kills from Rebecca Green and a kill by Tarayn McMillan force ENMU to take an early timeout.
The Zias rebounded back and tying the match again at 20 then the Aggies would score three of the next five points pushing it to set point. ENMU would score on the next three points to again even the set at 24 and pushed CU to set point at 26-27. In spite of this, Cameron was not ready to give up and would come back with three straight kills to win set one 29-27.
In set two, Cameron fell behind early and let ENMU take a 16-9 lead forcing CU to take a timeout and regroup. However, the gap was too much for the Aggies to come back from in set two falling 25-16.
The battle for the Aggies continued in the third set with both teams going back and forth with a small lead. After being knotted up at 18, the Aggies would get help from kills by Shannon Dulaney, Rebecca Green, and Julisa Ocasio to help give CU the edge 24-22. The Zias would again tie the set after a pair of attack errors forcing CU to take a late timeout. Cameron would come out of the break strong with kills from Annelise Carpenter and Kathryn Evans to win set 26-24.
Cameron in the fourth set took an early 9-5 lead over the Zias but much like the rest of the match the lead narrowed to a 12-11 CU advantage. Three kills and a Zia error would help the Aggies hold on to a late lead but a 6-1 run by ENMU once again put CU in a late set battle forcing Tabbert and company to take a timeout. The momentum continued for the Zias as they would even the match winning set four 25-21.
In the decisive set five, ENMU jumped out to an early 7-4 lead making Cameron take a timeout but the Zias scored two more points off of an Aggie attack errors and a service ace forced CU to take their second and final timeout. The damage was done though as the Zias continued on to win set five 15-9.
Risoli tied a career high 57 assists and had 29 digs shattering her previous high of 17 on Sept. 22 against Texas A&M Kingsville.
Evans with 22 kills tonight broke her career high of 19 set one week ago vs. Dallas Baptist. In the last four matches she has put together 68 total kills.
Dulaney put together her fifth double-double match this season after 16 kills and 15 digs tonight. Additionally for the Aggies, Green had 14 kills and Ocasio had 30 digs.
The loss drops Cameron to a 5-9 overall record and 1-4 in the Lone Star Conference.
Cameron will start a four match homestand starting in the Aggie Gym this Friday against Texas Woman’s at 7 p.m.
