HOUSTON, Texas – Texas Wesleyan entered Saturday’s Red River Athletic Conference tournament final riding an eight-match win streak, their longest of the season. It would have been an eleven-match streak, were it not for a 3-1 loss to Houston Baptist on October 25th. Unfortunately, the streak mattered little as the fifth-ranked Lady Huskies again proved to be the better team. Behind the powerful right arm of conference Player of the Year Elele Ekadeli, they dominated the Lady Rams in three games to win their fifth consecutive conference title.

After allowing HBU to jump to an early lead in the first game, the Lady Rams managed a short rally to tie score at five. From there, the Lady Huskies took control as the Lady Rams couldn’t seem to find the rhythm that powered them to their first twenty-win season in six years. HBU scores eleven of the next thirteen points to break the game open at 13-6. Ekadeli closed out the 30-17 game with two kills.

In the second, with the score at 5-3 in favor of HBU, the Lady Huskies scored 10 of the next 11 points. 7 were scored on Ekadeli’s serve. The Lady Rams fought their way back to an 8 point deficit, but HBU closed out the game with a 10-4 run, and won by a score of 30-16.

HBU scored 14 of the first 19 points in the third, and then cruised to the conference title with a 30-13 final game.

Ekadeli had 19 kills and five aces for the Lady Huskies, who improved to 39-2 on the year. Elinor Smith had 8 kills and four blocks, and Heather Emery had 6 kills, 2 blocks and 2 digs. Red River Conference Setter of the Year Sarah Emmer had 31 assists, 6 kills, and 10 digs. As a team, the Lady Huskies produced an amazing .506 hitting percentage for the contest.

Wesleyan was led by Tiffany Porterfield with 6 kills, Rachel Loftin with 5, and Nicky Davis with 4. Porterfield also added 5 digs and three blocks. Cortney Johansen had 18 assists. Susan Taylor and Katherine Williams added 6 digs apiece for the Lady Rams, who drop to 21-11 on the year.

Despite the setback, Wesleyan remains the third seed in the region and will participate in the regional tournament this weekend on the campus of Lubbock Christian University. They travel to Lubbock on Friday to face UT-Permian Basin for the fourth time this season. The Lady Falcons defeated Wesleyan in the first match of the year, 3-0 at a tournament in Plainview, but the Lady Rams returned the favor by whipping UTPB 3-1 and 3-0 in recent weeks. The game begins at 1:00 PM.

The winner of that game advances to face host Lubbock Christian, seeded second in the tournament. At 34-4 on the season, they are the only NAIA team to defeat Houston Baptist this season. That game begins at 7:00 on Friday.

Should Wesleyan win that game, they would advance to the regional tournament final, where in all likelihood, they would again face Houston Baptist. That game begins at 1:00 PM on Saturday.