SILVER CITY, N.M. -- The Cameron University volleyball team battled Western New Mexico in another five set thriller on Friday night, but fell to the Mustangs after losing the final two sets of the Lone Star Conference match.
Cameron's sixth five set match of the season was another tough loss for the CU netters. They totaled a season high 13 blocks, with senior
Ashleigh McFatridge leading the way with nine rejections at the net. However, the Black and Gold struggled offensively, recording just 48 kills on a .139 attack percentage in the loss.
Brandy Carr and
Paige Dixon led the Aggies with 11 kills against WNMU, while
Katherine Manning had 23 assists to lead the team. Additionally,
Brittnee Altic added 14 digs to her season total, as
Brittany Lawson chipped in 13. Carr and Dixon each had 13.5 points to lead CU, while McFatridge had 11.5 and
Shantalle Demirjian, who had nine kills and three blocks of her own, had 10.5.
Despite a 25-10 loss in set one, Cameron looked like there were going to notch their conference win with a 26-24 win in the second set and a 25-22 win the third. In the second set, the home team uses an early 5-0 run to take a 13-6 lead, and their advantage to 10 points with four straight scores. The Aggies bounced back with a long run of their own, going on a 13-2 stretch to take a one point advantage at 22-21. WNMU then scored a pair to take back a one point lead, but CU responded with three straight, powered by kills from Dixon and McFatridge to secure the set win. Cameron then battled back in forth with the Mustangs in the third until they closed out the set with a 6-1 run to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Unfortunately, the Mustangs showed how resilient they were and took set four 25-23 and the fifth set 15-10. Set four was a close battle with the Mustangs just narrowly edging out CU after a pair of attack errors, while in the final set, an early 5-0 rally for WNMU gave them a 10-4 advantage. The Black and Gold tried to make a late comeback with a 3-0 run with two points coming on Dixon kills, but Western. sealed the victory with a kill of their own.
WNMU was led by Selai Damuni, who had 20 kills and 11 digs, while Madelynn Culp and Sophia Mitchell combined for 54 assists and Gabi Lau had a game-high 29 digs.
Cameron moved to 2-11 and 0-3 in Lone Star Conference play with the loss, while the home team Mustangs are now 5-6 overall and 1-1 in league play.
The Aggies visited UT Permian Basin on Saturday afternoon and lost 3-1. Due to technical difficulties in Odessa, the recap and box score for Saturday's match will not be posted until later Saturday night or Sunday.
