Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score Goodwell, Okla.—The Oklahoma Panhandle State University volleyball team faced two Heartland Conference match-ups last week and fell short of gaining a conference victory.

Thursday, Oct. 3 the Aggies (3-12) took on the conference's third ranked St. Mary's University (7-7) and took a three-set loss to the Rattlers (15-25, 9-25, 13-25). St. Mary's was playing efficient volleyball averaging a .314 hitting percentage and holding OPSU to negative .085. The Aggies found it hard to get ahead of the Rattlers claiming only one lead throughout the entire match. Setter Skylar Mayeux finished with 17 assists; Sarah Koster led in points with 6.5 and brought in five kills and three blocks; Jessica DeBaun and Brittany Dubberstein each contributed 4.5 points to the Aggies and had four kills apiece; libero Kayla Schwartz matched Mayeux with seven digs.

Texas A&M International University (2-13) was the Aggies' Friday night opponent and they too were able to hold the Aggies to a negative hitting percentage and come out with a three-set victory (15-25, 15-25, 9-25) to gain their first conference win (1-6). The Aggies failed to pull ahead in the first set but started set two off by taking over the lead eight times before tying it up at 7-7 and permanently giving the Dustdevils control of the lead. Set three saw promise for the Aggies when Samantha McCay held the serve for five straight points but soon after TAMIU's Toriana Goods brought down a kill which put her in the serving position where she led the Deusdevils to 14 straight points and the final victory. Leading in points for the Aggies were Sarah Koster (6.5) and Brittany Dubberstein (6); Koster, Dubberstein, and Jessica DeBaun also contributed with four combined blocks.

Coach Mike Stephens said that the team continues to work on areas in need of improvement. "We need to apply what we work on in practice to our match play and we will be happier with our results."

The Aggies are home again this week starting Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 8 with a tri-match. Game one begins at 4 p.m. as the Aggies take on Fort Hays State; game two will start at approximately 6 p.m. with FHSU playing Northwestern Oklahoma State; and the Aggies will finish the evening off against NWOSU at 8 p.m. The team will bring back conference play Friday evening, Oct. 11 with a match-up against Newman University at 5 p.m. All Aggie volleyball home games can be viewed via streaming video with links available on the OPSU Athletics website.