Hobbs, NM --- The Lady Rams volleyball team traveled across Texas to Hobbs, New Mexico for their second conference match against College of the Southwest who is ranked 9th in Region VI. The Lady Rams started off on a good pace but fell to the Mustangs in three sets 23-30, 15-30, and 11-30.
Junior Shamell Spivey led the Lady Rams offense with 7 kills with help from freshman Courtney Morris’s 3 kills. Freshman setters Chelsea Dilworth and Shamara Pinson directed the attack with 7 and 4 assists and senior Ashley Wright added 3 aces along with sophomore Stephanie Castro’s 2 aces. Castro and freshman Yessenia Pena controlled the defense on the back row with 19 and 15 digs while Wright stayed at the net for 2 blocks.
Brownwood, TX --- The Lady Rams then traveled back across Texas to Brownwood for their second match of the day against NCAA III Howard Payne University. The Lady Rams started off slowly and came close to forcing the match to 4 sets before giving way in three, 12-30, 15-30, and 26-30.
Sophomore Mallori Oliver who was a redshirt freshman last year led the Lady Rams attach with 5 kills and contributed 3 blocks on defense. Spivey and Morris add 4 and 3 kills and Morris also led with 4 blocks at the net. Dilworth used her 7 assists to direct the Lady Rams’ hitters and Castro added another 2 aces to her total and being ranked second in the RRAC in aces per set. Pinson helped on defense with 7 digs and Castro who is tied for first in the RRAC in digs per set added 12 more digs to her total of 303 for the season. Castro is six digs shy of moving into third place behind HT leader and second place Alex Aponte who has 512 and 455 for the 2003 and 2004 seasons she played for the Lady Rams.
Next Opponent: The Lady Rams travel to Laredo for a match on Tuesday, September 25, at 7:00 p.m. against NCAA II Texas A&M International University. The Lady Rams will be at home for a conference match against #24 UT-Brownsville on Saturday, September 29th at 2:00 pm.