LUBBOCK, Texas — St. Edward's volleyball has spent the opening month of the season building one of the Lone Star Conference's more productive offenses around setter ALTHEA MORRIS. On Saturday, the Hilltoppers were forced to find out what that offense looked like without her.
With Morris sidelined by injury, St. Edward's shuffled its lineup and struggled to establish its usual attacking rhythm against one of the conference's most disruptive front lines, falling to Lubbock Christian 25-10, 25-7, 25-18 at the Rip Griffin Center.
The loss dropped St. Edward's to 7-7 overall and 2-2 in conference play, splitting its West Texas road trip after Friday's sweep of Midwestern State. Lubbock Christian improved to 7-7 and 3-1 in the LSC.
Morris' absence required St. Edward's to reconstruct an offense that had increasingly found its identity through her ability to distribute the ball across the net. BELLA BRICENO stepped into the primary setting role and finished with eight assists, while BEA ANGELES added three and libero GISELLE OJEDA had two.
The Hilltoppers never completely solved the adjustment.
St. Edward's finished with 17 kills against 26 attacking errors for a season-low hitting percentage, while Lubbock Christian accumulated 14 blocks and held the Hilltoppers below zero in all three sets. KELLI FORDING led St. Edward's with six kills, LANDRY BAUGHMAN added four and CARRINGTON JAIMES finished with two on seven attacks without an error.
The contrast was particularly stark coming less than 24 hours after St. Edward's controlled Midwestern State from start to finish in a road sweep. Without Morris directing the offense Saturday, the Hilltoppers had difficulty consistently putting their attackers into favorable situations, and Lubbock Christian's size at the net magnified every disruption.
The Lady Chaps established that dynamic immediately.
Lubbock Christian scored the first seven points of the match, with three early St. Edward's attacking errors contributing to a 4-0 opening run. Baughman and GRACE MCDONALD briefly interrupted the surge with consecutive kills, but the Lady Chaps continued building separation and eventually pushed the lead to 13-3.
Fording supplied two late kills and a service ace, but St. Edward's couldn't generate enough sustained offense to close the gap. Lubbock Christian hit .379 with 13 kills and only two errors in the opening set, while St. Edward's had six kills against eight errors in the 25-10 loss.
The problems compounded in the second set.
Baughman pulled St. Edward's within 5-3 with a kill from Angeles, but Haley Wheeler took over from the service line as Lubbock Christian scored seven consecutive points to stretch its advantage to 12-3. The Lady Chaps later produced another extended run behind Lauren Hanson's serve, turning a difficult set into a 25-7 decision.
Lubbock Christian was nearly flawless offensively in the frame, putting down nine kills without an attacking error on 17 swings for a .529 percentage.
The Hilltoppers finally began to settle into their altered lineup in the third.
After Lubbock Christian scored the first three points, St. Edward's answered with four straight, capped by a Jaimes-Baughman block that gave the Hilltoppers their first lead of the afternoon. The Lady Chaps eventually rebuilt their advantage to 17-10, but St. Edward's responded with its best stretch of the match.
Fording started the push with a kill before Ojeda took over from the service line. Ojeda delivered two aces during a five-point run, while Jaimes combined with Fording and Baughman on consecutive blocks to pull St. Edward's within 17-15 and force a Lubbock Christian timeout.
The Lady Chaps recovered out of the timeout. Kayson Reeves stopped the run with a kill, and Lubbock Christian scored eight of the final 11 points to finish the sweep with a 25-18 victory.
The Hilltoppers' late defensive response provided one positive from an otherwise difficult afternoon. After going without a block through the opening two sets, St. Edward's recorded four in the third alone, with Jaimes contributing four block assists in the match. Ojeda finished with six digs and two aces, while Briceno added seven digs alongside her eight assists.
Lubbock Christian, however, controlled the match at the net. The Lady Chaps hit .325 overall while committing only eight attacking errors, led by Camryn Blair's eight kills on 13 swings and Camdyn Sears' six kills without an error on eight attacks. Their 14 blocks helped force St. Edward's into 12 blocked attacks and limited the Hilltoppers to a 20-percent kill rate on 95 swings.
For a St. Edward's team that has spent the early season showing how quickly it can learn and adjust, Saturday presented a different kind of challenge: adapting without the setter who has served as the connective tissue of its offense through the opening month.
