Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Goodwell, Okla.—The Oscar Williams Field House was full of action as Panhandle Volleyball hosted two Heartland Conference matches Thursday and Friday; but the Aggies fell short of victory in each hard-fought contest.

Thursday night Texas A&M-International took their first win of the season over the Aggies, winning in three sets by scores of 25-15, 25-19 and 25-23. The Dustdevils earned six points on service aces in the first set and eight points off Aggie errors. After falling behind by as much as nine points (13-4) in the second set, Panhandle rallied back to within four points (17-13) with the help of strong serves by Jessica Taylor and Kendra Butler. The Aggies improved their hitting percentage in each set and held the game-high as a team in set three with .205 with 14 kills on 39 attacks. Senior Emily Goeken led the set with five kills followed by Julia Ibarra with three; Bristen Graves, Kayln Moore and Kendra Butler landed two kills apiece in the third set.

For the match TAMIU's Ramey Gardner led in kills with 11; the Dustdevils also totaled 11 service aces, while Panhandle finished with three aces and nine errors on the serve. Ibarra and Goeken led the Aggies with six kills each, and Ibarra held a game-high of 20 assists. TAMIU out-blocked the Aggies 6- 3 for the night. International earned their first Heartland win with the victory, and the Aggies dropped to a 2-14 overall record.

In Friday night's matchup the Aggies met with an 8-6 St. Mary's team that stood 2-1 in conference play. The Aggies made a match of it, taking the game to four sets with a third-set victory over StMU 29-27. The Rattlers took wins in sets one, two and four outscoring the Aggies 25-17, 25-16 and 25-11 in each set respectively. The Aggies held the higher hitting percentage in set one outscoring the Rattlers on kills 10-9, but six points lost on serves and three on ball handling errors hurt them in the end. St. Mary's turned up the heat in set two taking 14 kills on 25 attacks and holding the Aggies to .161 hitting percentage with nine kills on 31 total attacks. An exciting set three saw the tables turn as five service errors and nine attack errors by the Rattlers shifted the momentum in the Aggies' direction. Emily Goeken was hot on the attack taking six kills of the Aggies' 14 kills in the set; Kayln Moore and Kendra Butler each landed six kills with Stacia Wallace and Melody Ethley accounting for one kill apiece in set three. St. Mary's found their groove again in the fourth set hitting at over 52 percent (.524) while holding the Aggies to .028. The Rattlers totaled 11 kills on 21 attacks and capitalized on Aggie errors.

Overall Panhandle averaged .131 hitting percentage to StMU's .260 for the game; the Aggies totaled 42 kills and the Rattlers landed 48, but the Aggies committed eight more errors on the attack. St. Mary's also led in blocking with seven team blocks, while Panhandle finished with three solo blocks led by Goeken who had two. Goeken ended as the match leader in kills with 16, marking a career-high for her as an Aggie. The Rattlers' leading scorer was Lauren Martinez with twelve points, all on kills. Goeken totaled 18 points including two from solo blocks. Ibarra totaled 37 assists in the game, just short of the game-high which went to Bree Perry of StMU with 38. Ibarra also led the Aggies in digs with 11, while Maddi King led the game with 17 digs for the Rattlers.

The Aggies will now prepare for five road games spanning the next two weeks. They begin their tour in Hawkins, Texas with a match against Jarvis Christian College on Oct. 6 and then will re-enter conference play in Dallas on Oct. 7 facing a 3-12 Dallas Baptist team; next week's travels wrap up in Austin as the Aggies meet with St. Edward's who is currently undefeated among Heartland teams. The following week Panhandle with compete in a tri-match hosted by Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva on Oct. 11 before returning to their home court on Oct. 19 for a Pink Out match against Lubbock Christian. Aggie fans can check the volleyball schedule page at opsuaggies.com for access to live stats and video links as made available by their opponents while on the road.