BOX SCORE: Angelo State 3, TWU 0 (25-13, 25-18, 25-15)
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CANYON – The Angelo State volleyball team couldn't have dreamed of a better start for itself at the NCAA Division II South Central Championship.

Hitting percentage, receiving, getting through the vaunted Texas Woman's block, everything worked for the Belles as they claimed a 3-0 (25-13, 25-18, 25-15) quarterfinals win over the Pioneers on Thursday at the WTAMU Fieldhouse. ASU (24-9) advances to the semifinals where it will play No. 2-seed Colorado School of Mines at 5 p.m. on Friday.

"I was really pleased with the way we played today," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "We talked about putting pressure on the other team and winning the serve-and-pass battle. That is a great team that we played today and we executed really well. Even in the second set when we were down 6-1, I felt we were managing the game well enough to get back into it."

Arielle Bond led the Belles with 12 kills and hit .391 on 23 attacks, while Maddie Huth added eight kills and six blocks in the win. Maggi Jo Keffury led the offense with 34 assists and also contributed nine digs in her first postseason match at ASU. Courtney Bartusiak led ASU with a .417 hitting percentage and finished with six kills, while Shelby Wilt provided a team-leading 12 digs. Cerbi Ritchey provided six kills and two blocks with Haley Bianco and Katie MacLeay finishing with six digs each.

The Belles are now 3-0 in the NCAA DII South Central quarterfinals the past three seasons, while Waddington is 8-0 in the first round of the tournament along with his 5-0 record at Florida Southern as an assistant coach. ASU also opened the regional tournament with a sweep in 2012 with a straight-set victory over Adams State.

ASU, which hit .309 as a team and limited TWU to a .037 percentage, jumped out quick in the first set with a 7-0 advantage. TWU, which had a 40.5-18 blocking advantage over ASU in the previous three meetings, was limited to five blocks on Thursday. ASU cruised through the first set for a 12-point win to establish the tone between the two teams that went five sets two weeks ago at the conference tournament. Bond had five kills and Huth four in the first set for the Belles who had a .355 attacking percentage.

"We had a lot of energy coming into the match and played with that throughout," Bartusiak said. "Maggi Jo did a great job of distributing the ball and there were a lot of splits. It was kind of easy seeing through and around their block and she put the ball right where we needed it."

"It was a do-or-die match and we knew they were going to come out strong," said Kaelen Valdez, who had seven kills against TWU. "We had to come out stronger and with heart. We fought really hard and I'm really proud of the team."

ASU fell behind 6-1 in the second set, but quickly regrouped and were able to tie the match at 11 on a kill from Huth. The Belles went on a five-point run to establish a 16-11 lead with a Ritchey kill. ASU didn't trail the rest of the set to take a 2-0 advantage. The third set was close again early, but the Belles took control midway through again after the set was tied at 12. A Bond kill made it 17-12 before a Bartusiak kill took the score to 19-14. The match was ended with a 5-1 ASU run which included kills from Ritchey and Valdez, an ace from Wilt and two errors by TWU.

"Not only did we want to play good, we wanted to show the teams why we are here," Huth said. "Sweeping them is a good feeling and it shows teams that Angelo is here to play."

Josie Santos led the Pioneers (22-11) with 11 kills, while Morgan Wilson added 13 digs. Kayla Rivero and Kimberly Bell split setting duties with Rivero having 14 kills and Bell providing 13 assists.

The Belles will now face the winner of CSM which was also a three-set winner on Thursday. ASU has not played the Orediggers this season and are 0-3 all-time in program history.

"Every day is going to get harder," Valdez said. "We have to keep pushing and playing like we did today."