WICHITA FALLS, Texas - Midwestern State used its best attacking match of the season to claim a 3-2 Lone Star Conference win over East Central (Okla.) Saturday afternoon at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
With the victory, the Mustangs joined West Texas A&M as the lone LSC teams with unblemished conference marks at 3-0 and 4-0, respectively.
MSU, which has now once consecutive matches for the first time this season, improves to 5-13 on the season, while the Tigers dropped to 12-7 and 3-1.
Freshman
Shelbi Stewart continued a breakout week leading the squad with 15 kills for the second-straight match as four Mustangs notched 10-or-more kills while tallying hitting percentages of better than .200.
Senior middle blocker
Sesley Graves added 12 kills and committed just two errors in 20 attempts to hit .500, while sophomore outside hitters
Hillary White finished with 11 kills and a .250 kill percentage and
Miranda Byrd added 10 kills with a .207 percentage.
MSU's setting duo of freshman
Kimberly Jeffrey and sophomore
Dimery Michaels finished with 28 assists each to help the team to a .274 team hitting percentage, while committing just 18 errors over five sets.
The Mustangs also turned in a stellar performance at the net where Graves notched eight total blocks including three of the solo variety, while Bayer added four total with two solos and sophomore
Tiana Bond added another solo block as MSU finished with a season-high six solo blocks as a team.
It was the block that allowed MSU to close out the Tigers as Bond and Bayer each had a solo block in the final three points of the fifth set after ECU had clawed to with 10-6 after the Mustangs build a commanding 7-1 lead at the beginning of the deciding set.
Sophomore
Kiara Jordan turned in a career-high 32 digs to lead a solid back row effort as White polished off her third double-double of the season with 13 digs and Jeffrey added 10 of her own.
East Central was paced by senior middle blocker Emily Holombek's 17-kill performance, while senior Holly Hicks finished a solid all-around match with 11 kills, 31 assists, seven digs and five total blocks.
Midwestern State plays host to Wayland Baptist Tuesday night at D.L. Ligon Coliseum. First serve is set for 7 p.m.