[Story, photos courtesy of gobuffsgo.com]

SEATTLE, Wash. – For the first time in 25 years, the No. 9 West Texas A&M Lady Buffs are crowned the NCAA Division II National Champions after defeating No. 3 Concordia-St. Paul in four sets on Saturday night. WT finished the 2022 season with 26-match win streak with Bryli Contreras, Abi Nash, Kayla Elliott and Torrey Miller earning All-Tournament honors while Miller was named the National Tournament Most Valuable Player.

THE MATCH
#9 West Texas A&M 3, #3 Concordia-St. Paul 1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-20, 28-26)

THE RECORDS

• #9 West Texas A&M 33-4 (16-0 LSC)
• #3 Concordia-St. Paul (31-5, 17-3 NSIC) 

BY THE SET
Set 1
The opening set saw seven lead changes with 15 ties as the Golden Bears breaking away with 25-23 set win to grab hold of the match lead. Both programs hit well over .300 in the first set with CSP hitting .333 and WT at .343. The Lady Buffs had 17 kills on 35 swings with five errors to go along with 16 assists, 12 digs and two blocks while the Golden Bears had 18 kills on 39 attempts and five errors with 18 assists, 11 digs and three blocks.

SET 2 
The battle continued for the national title with a different tune as the Lady Buffs secured the second set victory, 25-23. WT hit .278 in the second set with 14 kills on 36 attempts with four errors out-blocking the Golden Bears 3-1. CSP hit over .300 for the second consecutive set at .325 with 18 kills on 40 swings with five errors and four service errors.

SET 3 
WT grabbed the match lead in the third set after defeating the Golden Bears, 25-20, led by six kills from senior Kayla Elliott. WT hit .273 in the third with 14 kills on 33 swings with five errors and four blocks while limiting CSP to hit just .154, their lowest of the weekend. The Golden Bears had 13 kills on 39 attempts with seven errors, two blocks and three service errors.

SET 4
The fourth set was back and forth seeing multiple lead changes until the Golden Bears collected a 4-0 run to grab a 17-16 lead. CSP jumped out to a 23-20 lead before WT leveld the score 24-all. With momentum on their side, the Lady Buffs strung together two straight points to capture the title.

THE NUMBERS 
WT hit .307 overall in the championship match with 62 kills on 150 swings with 16 errors to go along with 56 assists, 56 digs, 12 blocks and five aces. CSP ended the season hitting .261 with 67 kills on 165 swings with 24 errors, 63 digs, 65 assists, seven blocks and six aces.

Senior Kayla Elliot led the night, matching a career-high 17 kills followed by senior Abi Nash with 15 and Torrey Miller with 14 while Nash had three aces. Blair Moreland and Ainsley Malis combined for 48 assists to pace the offense while Bryli Contreras collected 17 digs with Camy Jones leading at the net with eight blocks.

THE MILESTONES

• WT won its first National Championship title since 1997 
• The Lady Buffs now have a postseason record of 58-25 during the NCAA Tournament with their fourth national title, first under Kendra Potts 
• Kendra Potts, the AVCA National Coach of the Year, moves to 9-2 in the NCAA Tournament with an 91-10 career record for an incredible winning percentage of 91%
• Potts becomes the fourth head coach to lead WT to a national title joining Kim Hudson, Jim Giacomazzi, and Debbie Hendricks