COMMERCE – Tarleton (22-8, 15-5) wrapped up the 2012 regular season and secured the No. 3 seed in next week's Lone Star Conference Championship Tournament with a dominating road sweep of Texas A&M-Commerce (20-10, 11-9) Saturday night.
With an LSC record of 15-5, Tarleton tied Texas Woman's but holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Pioneers after sweeping them in the regular season.
The 22 wins matches the second-most wins in a single-season by Tarleton, tying the 2008 season and is one win shy of the most in a season – 23 wins in 2010.
Tarleton opened play with the first two points before Commerce struck for one. At the 2-1 mark, a block by
Nikki McNorton started a 16-0 Tarleton run that put the TexAnns up 18-1 – the largest lead that have held all season.
The run was strengthened by seven Lion errors, seven combined kills from McNorton and
Stacie Murrah and a block by Murrah and McNorton.
Tarleton scored nine of the final 17 points of the set to claim the win.
Emily Klein sealed the game with a service ace.
In the second set, Commerce kept it tight over the first third of the set.
With Tarleton leading 8-6, a service error gave the TexAnns a 9-6 lead which started a 7-1 TexAnn run to lead 15-7. After the Lions scored three straight to cut the TexAnn lead to five, kills from
Kelsey Raglin, Murrah and McNorton extended the TexAnn lead back to eight.
Tarleton outscored the Lions 7-5 down the stretch and sealed the game on a kill by McNorton.
Commerce battled to avoid the sweep, but Tarleton would not be denied as they went on to a 25-22 win in the third set.
Tarleton led most of the way – by as many as five on several different occasions – but Commerce battled to take a 19-18 lead. Tarleton stopped the bleeding and managed to tie it at 21-21 before ending the game on a 4-1 run.
Murrah led the team with 13 kills while
Danielle Barker posted a double-double with 21 assists and 14 digs.
Katie Covell and Raglin added 10 digs each while Klein posted a team-high 19.
Tarleton will return to action in the first round of the LSC Championship Tournament in San Angelo Nov. 15 against the No. 6 seed Texas A&M-Kingsville. For more information, check back to TarletonSports.com or visit LoneStarConference.org.
