DENTON – The Angelo State volleyball team suffered its first sweep of the season and its second consecutive loss with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-17) Lone Star Conference defeat to Texas Woman's on Tuesday at the Kitty Magee Arena.

The No. 10 Belles (11-4, 4-2 LSC) return to action at 5 p.m. against Texas A&M-Commerce at the Lion Field House in Commerce. TWU (12-5, 4-1 LSC) has now taken the last two regular-season meetings against ASU after winning the final match of the 2012 regular season before the Belles eliminated the Pioneers in the semifinals of the conference tournament.  TWU now goes on a six-match road trip which will include a stop in San Angelo for the rematch against the Belles on Oct. 19 at the Junell Center.

Angelo State was limited to a .082 hitting percentage in the loss and committed 23 errors. TWU hit .202 in the match and limited its errors to 16 and had 78 digs in the match to ASU's 67 digs. The Pioneers also held an 11.5-4 blocking advantage in the match and took advantage of six ASU service errors.

Arielle Bond led the Belles with 10 kills with Maddie Huth adding eight kills and two blocks. Maggi Jo Keffury had 23 assists and 11 digs with Katie MacLeay leading the team with 17 digs. Shelby Wilt contributed 10 digs and five assists, while Haley Bianco had 11 digs and Cerbi Ritchy provided six kills.

Mallory Kuechle, Marcela Alves and Jaqueline Santos led TWU with eight kills each, while Morgan Wilson had a match-high 22 digs with Torie Talkington adding 18 digs and five kills.

The Belles fell behind 11-4 in the first set after six straight TWU points off two attacking errors, a service error and kills from Jacqueline Santos, Mallory Keuechel and Marcela Alves. ASU closed to within a 14-9 deficit on an Arielle Bond kill and then closed to 15-12 on a pair of Huth kills. Two consecutive attacking errors took the score back to 17-12 and forced an ASU timeout.  The Belles closed to within four but lost the opening set 25-18. Huth led ASU with five kills in the set, but the Belles were held to a .000 hitting percentage with 12 attacking errors.

ASU responded in the second set by taking a 7-3 advantage on two Courtney Bartusiak kills, one each from Huth and Valdez combined with four TWU errors. The Belles extended their lead to 11-7 on a Bond kill and to 13-10 on a Ritchey kill before TWU went on a rally to tie the match at 15 with the help of three ASU errors. The Pioneers went on a 5-2 run to take a 20-17 advantage on two more ASU errors before closing out the set 25-21 on a kill from Tate.

The third set started with the Belles jumping out to a 5-2 lead on a pair of kills from Leah McWilliams and one each from Ritchey and Bartusiak. TWU would take its first extended leads at 11-7 on back-to-back kills from Tate and Santos. The Pioneers extended its advantage to 17-11 with four straight points before a kill form Valdez that only momentarily slowed the rally.  The set and match ended with TWU on a 5-2 rally which was capped by a Santos kill.

The three-set loss was the first time Angelo State has been swept since losing to Colorado School of Mines last season at the Colorado Premier Challenge on Sept. 8, 2012. It is the first conference sweep since Nov. 6, 2011 against West Texas A&M.

UP NEXT: ASU will return home to host Tarleton State (9-6, 4-1 LSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Junell Center following its match on Wednesday at Texas A&M-Commerce.