ATHENS, Texas — The No. 7 Blinn College volleyball team fell to Tyler Junior College, 3-1 (25-23, 27-29, 20-25, 24-26) in the Region XIV Championship game in Cardinal Gym Friday.
With the loss, the Buccaneers are now 23-2 overall.
The Buccaneers move into the consolation bracket and will compete against the winner of tomorrow morning’s game between Trinity Valley Community College and No. 9 Navarro College on Saturday, April 3, at 1 p.m. The winner of the game will advance to the NJCAA Division I Volleyball Championship in West Plains, Mo., April 15-17.
“I thought the girls played really hard and I was proud of their effort,” head coach Terry Gamble said. “We just didn’t make plays in important times.”
Three Buccaneers recorded season highs in the hard-fought match. Setter Loren Scott recorded a season-high 53 assists, Lixai Perez Velez put up a season-high 32 digs, and Ashley Taylor tallied a season-high 10 block assists in the match.
Jayde Shelton led the Buccaneers with 20 kills, while Chard’e Vanzandt followed with 16, and Taylor matched her season-high 10 kills. On defense, Emily Smajstrla had 14 digs and Scott posted 11. In addition, Vanzandt and Shelton combined for nine block assists.
Blinn got off to a good start in the match by defeating Tyler, 25-23, in the first set. Blinn and Tyler alternated the lead in the second set, but the Apaches were able to come up with a 29-27 win to shift the momentum. Tyler defeated Blinn 25-20 in the third set to pull ahead in the match, 2-1. Blinn and Tyler switched off the lead in the fourth set until the very end when the Apaches managed two straight points for a 26-24 win to take the match.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 41 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
