Central Oklahoma rallied from a two games to one deficit to spoil the Texas A&M University-Commerce Senior Day festivities to defeat the host Lions, 30-22, 28-30, 28-30, 30-18, 15-10.
A&M-Commerce (9-19, 3-9 LSC) senior Colleen Favaro wrapped up her Lions career with a game-high 25 kills and 22 digs in the loss. Sophomore libero Lauren Flynn added 39 assists and junior setter Brittany Williams added 47 assists.
The UCO (29-5, 11-1 LSC) attack featured three players with double figure kills, including 24 from Mari Araujo. Teammates Kelsey Reynodls and Jessica Legako added 15 and 14 kills, respectively in the win. Reynolds also had a hand on six block assists. Setter Meaghan Wedberg had a game-high 48 assists to go along with 10 digs.
The loss ends the season for the Lions and the careers of Favaro, Jackie Orr, Jana Starkweather, Mandy Berger and Wannie Neal, who were honored in a celebration between games two and three.
Lions fall SWOSU
Texas A&M University-Commerce senior Colleen Favaro had a match-high 25 kills and sophomore Lauren Flynn had a match-high 35 digs; however, it was visiting Southwestern Oklahoma State, who rallied from a first game loss to defeat the host Lions, 31-33, 31-29 30-27, 30-27 on Thursday night in the A&M-Commerce Field House.
With the loss, the Lions fall to 9-18 overall and 3-8 in the Lone Star Conference. The Bulldogs raise their record to 13-19 overall and 4-7 in the LSC.
The Bulldogs out hit A&M-Commerce, .194 to .166 and had four players with double-digit kills, including a double-double performance from Kasandra Gurtner, who had a team-high 17 kills and 23 digs in the win.
In the opening game, A&M-Commerce found itself trailing 20-22 until a Favaro kill sparked a 5-0 run for the Lions to take their first lead since a 2-1 lead earlier in the game. The Lions would rally again as they faced three Bulldog game points but the Lions would prevail on the strength of a kill by Favaro and two more from Wannie Neal as well as an SOSU to take the first game, 33-31.
In the second game, the Lions led for most of the game, but SWOSU withstood four game points and also out hit the Lions .106 to .065 as Paula Harry and Kacia Sandburg each had four kills. In game three, the Bulldogs led from start-to-finish as they hit .229 compared to .122 for A&M-Commerce. In addition, SWOSU had four blocks to the one for A&M-Commerce. In the fourth game, the Lions were out hit .275 to .234. Favaro had eight kills but it was Gurtner, who led the Bulldogs with six kills in the decisive game.
The Lions will close out the home portion of its schedule on Saturday at 2 pm when they take on Central Oklahoma. At the match, A&M-Commerce will honor its five seniors – Mandy Berger, Colleen Favaro, Wannie Neal, Jackie Orr and Jana Starkweather.