CANYON, Texas --- The Wayland Baptist volleyball team wrapped up the Lady Buff Classic at West Texas A&M University with a pair of wins over NCAA Division II opponents on Saturday. The Pioneers defeated Eastern New Mexico in four sets, 25-18, 18-25, 25-19, 25-22, and then came right back to demolish the Lady Aggies of Oklahoma Panhandle State, 25-8, 25-13, 25-22.
Senior hitter Kate Trejos had an unbelievable day for Wayland on Saturday. Against ENMU, she recorded 27 kills, had 14 digs and three total blocks, scoring a season-high 29.5 points. In the second match of the day, the Bogotá, Colombia native put down 19 kills on 35 attempts with just two errors. Her hitting percentage for the match was .486.
Kimberli Harger, another senior, tied a school record in the ENMU contest with nine block assists. The four-year letterwinner also had 15 digs in the match.
Sophomore setter Natasha Giacomazzi handed out 40 assists, and posted ten digs and three blocks. Tatiana Gonzalez contributed a team-high 19 digs and had two blocks. In all, Wayland had a season-high 13.5 blocks against ENMU and six Pioneers hit the double-digit mark in digs.
In the day's second match, Gonzalez dug up another 19 attack attempts. The senior middle held serve for 13 straight points in the first set, turning a close 10-7 contest into a 23-7 blow-out.
Wayland's 6'0 freshman middle, Ashley Duff, added seven kills and a team-high five blocks against the Lady Aggies.
Pioneer coach Jim Giacomazzi, whose team improves to 7-3, was pleased with the continued progress of his squad. "We're getting better, step-by-step. Even in the matches we lost, I could see improvement. We're eliminating a lot of the same hitting errors that I was seeing earlier in the season."
Giacomazzi added that he hopes his team uses its play over the weekend as a springboard to get ready for arch-rival Lubbock Christian University. The Pioneers and Lady Chaps meet on Tuesday in Lubbock at 7 p.m. in the conference opener for both schools.
