LAWTON – The Cameron volleyball team battled UAFS in the first two sets on their first meeting of the season on Tuesday, but faded in the third, losing 3-0 to the Lady Lions in the Aggie Gym.

The Aggies, who had split their first two series of the 2021 spring season, continued the trend by losing the first of back-to-back matches against their Lone Star Conference Divisional opponents.

In the first two sets, the Black and Gold looked primed to give UAFS a run for their money. After trailing by as much as six in the first fame, CU got to within one, 23-22, thanks to a 3-0 run powered by a pair of Arianna Navarrete kills. The Lady Lions sandwiched another Navarrete kill with two of their own to take set one 25-23. CU had 12 kills on an attack percentage of .158 in the first.

After playing to a 5-5 tie in the second Cameron used a 7-1 rally to take a 12-6 lead. The Aggies held the lead until a 8-1 run by their opponent but them on the wrong side of a 21-18 score. CU was able to tie it back up at 22-all on a kill by Alanni Carter, but again UAFS was able to close out the frame 25-23. The Aggies had 15 kills in the set two loss.

The final set was played to another 5-5 tie before the Lady Lions took over, using runs of eight and six straight points to take a 19-6 lead. CU got back to within 10 before UAFS closed out the match on a 5-1 rally, winning the set 25-11.

Cameron's negative attack percentage in the third dropped their match percentage to just .083 with 34 total kills. They came into the match as the second best blocking team in the LSC, but recorded just 5.5 total blocks on Tuesday.

Navarrete led the way with 15 kills, a season-high, while hitting .195 and adding nine digs in the match. Carter finished one kill shy of a double-double (nine) and had 13 digs and two blocks. Desiree Marmolejo had 20 assists for CU, while Presley Shearin tied with Carter for the team-lead in digs and Natlia Araujo da Silva led the way with three total blocks.

Cameron, now 2-3, will try to repeat the trend of their first series and take the second match of the series when the two teams meet again on Wednesday with first serve again set for 5:30 p.m.