THE RUNDOWN
DBU Volleyball dropped a highly competitive South Central Regional semifinal match to top seed No. 5 West Texas A&M on Friday night in Canyon, Texas. The loss eliminates the Lady Patriots from the NCAA tournament, bringing their 2023 campaign to a close.
 
DBU (24-8, 14-2) surged to an 8-3 start to force an early timeout by WT (30-3, 14-2), and the Lady Buffs answered with a 10-6 run to almost tie the score, 14-13. After taking three in a row and six of the next eight, the Lady Patriots maintained distance from WT to win the first set.
 
The Lady Buffs controlled the majority of the second set. Due in part to allowing a pair of 5-0 stretches, DBU found itself down 21-11 late in the frame. However, the Lady Patriots began a comeback, narrowing the gap to as few as five before WT evened the set count at one apiece.
 
The third was about as back-and-forth as they come. The Lady Buffs kept the momentum from the preceding frame with a 6-2 start. Coming out of a timeout, DBU went on an 8-1 spurt to take a 10-7 lead. WT leveled the tallies at 10, and the two Lone Star Conference Co-Champions stayed within a point of each other until the Lady Buffs won four straight rallies for a 20-17 advantage. The nearly even play extended into deuce play, where the pendulum swung until WT finally claimed the set, 31-29.
 
Falling behind early, 6-3, the Lady Patriots recovered to equalize the score at 10-10. The Lady Buffs sustained a marginal edge through the end of the set to win the four-set affair.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- There were a total of 32 ties and 14 lead changes in the match. The third set was responsible for 20 of the ties and 6 of the lead changes.
- The Lady Patriots end the year 2-2 against nationally ranked opponents.
- DBU held WT to a .081 hitting percentage in the first set, the Lady Patriots' best defensive set against the Lady Buffs since 2014.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
100 - With her first block of the night, Lindsey Otero recorded her 100th block of the season, making her and Shaylee Shore (122 blocks) the first pair of Lady Patriots to reach the century mark in the same season. She finished the year with 103 blocks.
200 - Fuller (494 kills), Karly Wells (289), and Shaylee Shore (216) each ended the season with more than 200 kills. They are the first trio of Lady Patriots to do so since 2018.
.750 - DBU's 24-8 record gives the program its second-best winning percentage in a season of .750, a game behind 2022's .781.

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE WITH JORDAN FISH, DAYLEE DOGGETT, AND LINDSEY OTERO
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