By DARIN ALLRED

Register Sports Editor

The North Central Texas College Lady Lions volleyball team continued to move up the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference standings with a 25-20, 25-15, 25-20 win over the Vernon College Lady Chaparrals Thursday night at Lions Fieldhouse.

The win improved the Lady Lions’ conference record to 3-1, moving them ahead of Vernon who fell to 2-2. NCTC is now in second place just one game behind Temple, who is undefeated at 4-0.

The Lady Lions came out firing in the first game as Leslye Richmond served three-straight points and Liz Neyland and Kate Harrison each had kills to put NCTC ahead 9-1. Vernon came back to pull within 12-8, but back-to-back kills by Leticia Silva pushed the Lion lead to 14-9.

The Lady Chaps reeled off five straight points to go ahead 15-14, but NCTC regained the lead on an ace by Neyland and a kill by Ashley Hardcastle put the Lady Lions back up 18-17. Harrison then served three points to push the lead to 21-18.

Down the stretch, Hardcastle had two more kills as NCTC took the first game 25-20.

The second game was back-and-forth in the beginning as neither team had more than a one-point lead until Andrea Davis served two points to put NCTC ahead 8-6.

It was 9-9 when Jordy Phyffer had a kill to give the Lady Lions a sideout and a 10-9 lead. Neyland then served four straight points and Hardcastle had a pair of kills to put NCTC ahead 14-9.

The lead grew to 19-10 as Harrison had four service points and Silva and Phyffer teamed up on a block at the net. NCTC put the game away with another block from Silva and kills from Hardcastle and Neyland to take the second game 25-15.

Vernon jumped on top 4-1 in the third game before Neyland served an ace to put NCTC ahead 5-4. The Lady Lions trailed 9-6 before Ashley Lee and Chelsea Hermes came into the game and gave the home team a spark. Lee had three kills and a block, Neyland added two kills and Hermes had a kill as well as NCTC went up 15-11.

The Chaps went back up 17-16, but Phyffer stopped the bleeding with a kill and Neyland served three points to put NCTC back ahead 20-17. A pair of kills by Hardcastle made it 24-20, then Hermes put an exclamation point on the game with a thunderous kill to end the game 25-20.

Kate Harrison had 33 assists, 14 kills, 10 digs and 2 blocks; Ashley Hardcastle had 13 kills and 13 digs; Jordy Phyffer had 9 kills, 2 digs and 1 block; Liz Neyland had 7 kills, 15 digs and 3 assists; Leslye Richmond had 12 digs and 1 ace; Ashley Lee had 5 kills and 3 blocks; Chelsea Hermes had 2 kills and 2 assists; Leticia Silva had 2 kills, 2 blocks and 1 dig; and Andrea Davis had 4 digs.

On Tuesday, the Lady Lions picked up maybe their biggest win of the season by going on the road and knocking off Hill College 23-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-7 in Hillsboro.

“This was a huge road win for us and was our most complete game of the year for us,” NCTC coach Angie Bullard said. “The girls worked extremely hard to earn this win. I was very proud of their performance as a team.”

In that game, Jordy Phyffer had 10 kills and 7 blocks; Liz Neyland had 11 kills, 15 digs, 3 aces and 2 blocks; Ashley Hardcastle had 16 digs and 8 kills; Kate Harrison had 38 assists, 12 digs, 7 kills and 6 blocks; Leslye Richmond had 18 digs; Ashley Lee had 6 blocks and 4 kills; Leticia Silva had 5 kills; and Andrea Davis had 5 digs, 3 assists and 2 aces.

NCTC will continue conference play at home Tuesday with an afternoon match against Ranger College at 4.