KINGSVILLE, Texas (March 23, 2021) – Later than most folks in the Lone Star Conference suspected, Oklahoma Christian's first volleyball season since fall 1983 ended Tuesday night – but not before the Eagles added another page to their 2021 scrapbook by playing in the postseason.

Texas A&M-Commerce broke open what had been a tight match in the third set and carried that momentum through the fourth to close out a 3-1 (25-22, 20-25, 25-11, 25-12) win over OC in a first-round LSC tournament match at Texas A&M-Kingsville's Steinke Center.

OC closed with a 6-12 record in the spring-semester season while TAMUC (7-6) earned a quarterfinal match at No. 8-ranked TAMUK (12-0) on Wednesday. That the Eagles made the postseason proved wrong the skeptics who picked OC – with only four upperclassmen on a roster otherwise consisting entirely of freshmen – dead last in the LSC in the preseason poll.

OC didn't look like a last-place team against TAMUC, a perennial league power, forcing the Lions to elevate their game – which, to their credit, they did.

TAMUC posted 65 kills and a .233 attack percentage, with three players – Maddy Rashford (17), Nicki Gonelli (15) and Sydney Andersen (11) – all reaching double digits in kills. Lyric Hebert's 32 digs led a TAMUC defense that recorded 93, compared to 71 for OC.

OC had only 35 kills, with Allyssa Hamlin leading the Eagles with 13. But the Eagles weren't far off. They tied the first set at 21-21 on a kill by Talby Duerksen before committing four errors – two on the attack, one on a serve and one in ball handling – to hand the set to TAMUC.

Up 10-8 in the second set, the Eagles ran off seven straight points to go up 17-8 and held off a rally by the Lions, closing the set on a kill by Hamlin.

At that point, it appeared to be anybody's match, but TAMUC used a 14-4 run in the third set to blow it open, then jumped to a 5-1 lead in the fourth set. The Eagles never recovered.

Four Eagles recorded double-digit digs – Caitlynne Hudgens (19, to go with six kills), Spencer Plato (12, to go with 24 assists), Brylie Berryman (12) and Hamlin (10). Junior Kelsie Schiefelbein finished with six block assists.

Unlike the current season, with a strange schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic, coach Barry Wheeler's Eagles figure to play a more normal season starting in August, one that will include all LSC opponents. The schedule for that season should be announced sometime during the summer.