WICHITA FALLS, Texas - When Midwestern State needed a finish in Thursday night's Lone Star Conference contest against Incarnate Word, the Mustangs need only to turn to
Caitlin Wallace.
The freshman from Amarillo came up clutch in crunch time delivering the Mustangs final four kills and was in on a pivotal block to turn the tide as MSU came away with a 25-14, 23-25, 25-20, 26-24 win to improve to 7-6 on the season and 2-1 in conference play.
Wallace finished with a match-high 14 kills and committed just one error in 26 attempts for a stellar .500 hitting percentage, but seemed to be even better than that at closing time.
The 6-0 middle blocker put down her 11th kill of the match to pull the Mustangs within 21-20, then combined with
Hillary White to block Incarnate Word's Beth Soukup to pull MSU ahead at 22-21.
Wallace would give Midwestern its first match point at 24-22 before the Cardinals struck back with Soukup kill and a Vanecia Spencer solo block of
Taryn Westerman to knot the fourth set at 24-24 before Wallace put down consecutive thunderous kills to end the match.
Westerman, a 5-11 junior, piloted the MSU attack to a .200 team hitting percentage while posting her second straight double-double with 50 set assists and 12 digs, while White closed the match with 14 kills and 17 digs.
The Mustangs finished the match with 81 total digs led by junior libero
Kiara Jordan's 28-dig performance to limit the Cardinals to a .127 team hitting percentage.
Senior middle block
Lauren Bayer led the effort at the net with six total blocks while White added four as the Mustangs closed with 10 total team blocks.
Daniella Vidaurri and Stephanie Bonura paced Incarnate Word with 12 kills each as the Cardinals dipped to 3-5 and 1-2.
Midwestern State hosts Texas A&M-Kingsville Saturday afternoon at D.L. Ligon Coliseum. First service is set for 2 p.m.