TLU Volleyball Survives at St. Thomas in Five to Clinch No. 2 Seed

HOUSTON, Texas -- Texas Lutheran volleyball survived a wild five-set thriller against St. Thomas, 13-25, 28-26, 19-25, 25-18, 18-16, to finish off the regular season and clinch the number two seed in next week's SCAC Tournament hosted by Southwestern in Georgetown Friday night in Houston.

The Bulldogs complete the regular season with a 22-7 overall record and 12-4 mark in SCAC play. The 2023 season marks the second consecutive season the Bulldogs have tallied double-digit conference victories with 12 wins making for the most in program history. The win also clinched a first round bye for the Bulldogs, the first time the Bulldogs have earned the bye in the SCAC Tournament in program history.

Tanyse Moehrig (Spring Branch/Smithson Valley), who entered Friday's match 36 kills from 1,000 in her TLU career, led the Bulldogs with a season-high 20 kills while adding 10 digs for her second double-double of the season. Brylie Nedd joined Moehrig in double figures with 12 kills. Nedd and Moehrig came up clutch late in the match with seven kills each coming over the course of the fourth and fifth sets.

Shavonne Respondek (San Antonio/Madison) had her 25th double-double of the season with a career-high 33 digs and 24 assists, while also adding seven kills and a service ace. Julia Chew (Cypress/Cy-Fair) recorded her tenth double-double of the season with 18 assists and 14 digs.

Faith Coldewey (Floresville/Floresville) tallied a career-high 35 digs to go along with nine assists. Richelle Guerra (Brownsville/Rivera Early College) and Ridley Kelly (Missouri City/Elkins) also finished in double figures in digs with 19 and 12 digs respectively. Texas Lutheran, who leads NCAA Division-III in digs per set and ranked third in team digs, tallied 135 digs in the match with six Bulldogs finishing in double figures.

The Bulldogs started slow in the first set and were unable to overcome a large deficit, falling 25-13. Texas Lutheran was held to a .000 hitting percentage while St. Thomas managed to hit .217.

The second set was tight throughout with 14 ties and seven lead changes but a 3-0 run to close the set allowed TLU to tie the match at one set apiece.

The Celts were in full control in the third set as they cruised to a 25-19 win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

TLU jumped all over the Celts in the fourth set, starting the set with an 8-0 run. The Celts tried to battle back but Texas Lutheran would lead the set from beginning to end to win the set 25-18 and send the match to a decisive fifth set. Tanyse Moehrig and Brylie Nedd combined for 13 kills in the fourth set to guide the Bulldogs to the fifth set.

The Bulldogs started strong in the fifth set, taking a 7-2 lead before allowing the Celts to take match point, 14-10. The Bulldogs would close the match on an 8-2 run to steal the fifth set and the win.

Texas Lutheran begins play in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Friday, Nov. 10, in Georgetown, Texas. TLU, the No. 2 seed, will face the winner of No. 3 Colorado College and No. 6 Southwestern at a time to be announced later on the campus of Southwestern. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com. 

For more information on Texas Lutheran volleyball, follow the Bulldogs on Facebook (TLU Volleyball), X (Twitter) (@TLU_VB), and Instagram (@tlu_vb) and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on X (Twitter), @tlu_athletics on Instagram and TikTok, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).