BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor volleyball team beat No. 3 U.T.-Dallas 3-2 Friday evening in Belton to advance to the 2014 American Southwest Conference Volleyball Tournament Championship. UMHB improved to 24-5 with the win while the Comets fell to 21-10.
 
UMHB trailed by as many as nine points in the first set before constructing an 8-3 rally to win the first set 25-23. The Cru took early control of the second set and used an 8-1 rally to end the second set with a 25-18 victory. U.T.-Dallas led late in the third set and won the back-and-forth set-point rally to grab the third set 30-28. The Comets again took control of the fourth set, leading by six points. UMHB used a 10-6 run to pull within two, but fell 25-22 in the fourth set. In the deciding set, UMHB led 8-5 at the split, then grabbed the 3-2 match-win with a 15-9 win in the fifth set.
 
Kendall Pye led the Cru with 16 kills while Abby Voskuil added 15 and Kelsey Nothnagel had 12. Pye had a team-high 32 assists followed by Shelby Prather with 27. Defensively, Pye led the Cru with 39 digs, Shelby Prather added 25 and Kendra Feldmann had 24. Cheyenne Dowdey led the Cru with 12 blocks in the match en route to a team-total 16. UMHB hit 75 kills in 243 attacks for a .198 percentage. The Comets hit 66 kills in 266 attacks for a .109 hitting percentage.
 
No. 1 Mary Hardin-Baylor will advance to the championship on Saturday, Nov. 8^th at 3 p.m. No. 3 U.T.-Dallas will move to the loser's bracket and face the winner of No. 2 East Texas Baptist and No. 6 Hardin-Simmons on Saturday, Nov. 8^th at 12 p.m. You can follow the ASC Volleyball Tournament through live video and live statistics at the following link: http://cruathletics.com/sports/2014/11/2/WVB_1102142720.aspx. Day passes for the tournament are $10 for adults and $5 for students on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, passes will be $8 for adults and $3 for students. Official tournament t-shirts are available for $15.00.