LOCAL

AVILES POWERS LU SOCCER PAST UTEP

EL PASO — Alexus Aviles scored two goals while Mari Olastuen added a goal and two assists to lead the Lamar women’s soccer team to a 3-2 win over the host UTEP Miners on Friday night in the Sixth Annual Border Bash.

UTEP (2-3) got on the board first when Jenna Mullen scored with 11:19 remaining in the first half. That goal seemed to jolt the Cardinals (3-2), who quickly responded to take the lead.

Aviles tied the game with her second goal of the season as she tapped in a pass from Olastuen while standing on the goal line with 8:30 remaining in the half. Olastuen would get her second of the season just 88 seconds later, an unassisted tally that found its way past UTEP goalkeeper Alyssa Palacios, who had lost her footing.

Aviles made it 3-1 with 22:40 remaining in regulation, scoring on a scramble in front of the goal. Olastuen was credited with her second assist of the night.

Aviles’ goal proved to be important, as UTEP scored just 66 seconds later when Brittney Trought scored off a corner kick. Mullen was credited with the assist.

CARDS FALL IN BOTH DELTA ZETA MATCHES

SAN MARCOS — It was rough day for the Lamar volleyball team after it dropped both matches it played to Big 10 program Indiana, 3-1 (25-21, 21-25, 18-25, 11-25),  and former Southland Conference member and host Texas State, 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-15), in the opening day of the Delta Zeta Classic on Friday.

Lamar (3-3) started off the match against Indiana (4-1) strong with a first-set win for the fourth-straight match the Cardinals took the first set, but errors proved costly in the final three. In the first game, Lamar committed only two attack errors and four service errors.  As a team, it hit .308 after 10 kills in 26 attempts.

The rest of the sets continued to see the errors add up. The second set had five attack errors, five service errors and five reception errors. The team hit .167 in the second set and fell to .000 in the third set and -.136 in the fourth.

Against Texas State (3-3), Lamar hit for a .253 average with 37 kills and 13 errors in 95 total attacks.  It was led by Chelsea Grant, who rebounded from the earlier game, to hit .833 with 10 kills and no errors and added two blocks. Autumn Taylor hit .368 with eight kills and one error in 19 attempts. Haley Morton had 17 assists and Ashley Ellis had 14.

LU returns to the floor this morning at 11 against Prairie View A&M before the night cap versus Texas Southern at 6.

STATE

McHUGH PICKS UP 15TH WIN FOR ASTROS

HOUSTON (AP) — Collin McHugh continued his stellar season and the Houston Astros got back to their winning ways.

McHugh went 7 2/3 innings and Hank Conger hit a grand slam as the Houston Astros beat the Minnesota Twins 8-0 on Friday night.

McHugh (15-7) gave up seven hits and struck out six in picking up his second straight win.

McHugh has allowed two runs or fewer in each of his last six starts.

“He’s a complete pitcher and when he’s locked into his mechanics and getting down the hill, he’s got a lot the hitter has to deal with,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “It looks like the ball jumps out of his hand a little more than the scoreboard reads, and the breaking ball to me has been very impressive, both below the zone and in the zone.”

McHugh, who hadn’t pitched since Aug. 26 at the New York Yankees, became the Astros’ second pitcher to win at least 15 games with Dallas Keuchel, who leads the AL with 16.

ANGELS’ CRON BEATS RANGERS BY HIMSELF

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — C.J. Cron realizes the Los Angeles Angels are down to their last few chances to make a playoff run.

He didn’t waste a single opportunity when the Angels opened their make-or-break homestand with a big win.

Cron tripled, doubled, singled and drove in all five runs, carrying Los Angeles to a 5-2 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday night.

Cron came through with a bases-loaded, two-out single in the third against Martin Perez (2-4). Los Angeles’ streaky designated hitter added an RBI triple in the fifth and a run-scoring double in the seventh inning of the Angels’ third straight win in a playoff push that probably can’t wait another weekend.

Shin-Soo Choo had an RBI triple in the seventh for the Rangers, who had won six of seven.

NATIONAL

WILLIAMS COMES BACK BUT NADAL FALTERS

(AP) — Eight times this season at major tournaments, Serena Williams has dropped the opening set. Eight times, she has won.

The latest comeback came in the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday night, when Williams figured out a way to deal with a tricky opponent and get her own game going before it was too late, eventually emerging to grab the last eight games for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 victory over American wild-card entry Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Williams ran her Grand Slam record to 24-0 in 2015, and 31-0 since her last defeat at a major, at Wimbledon in June 2014.

At 5-all in the second set, Mattek-Sands was two games from completing the upset. She would not win another game.

After they left Arthur Ashe Stadium, Rafael Nadal failed to close out a victory despite taking the first two sets, the first time he has blown that big a lead in a Grand Slam match. The eighth-seeded Nadal’s 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 loss to the 32nd-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy also ends the Spaniard’s 10-year streak of winning at least one major title per season. He lost in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and the French Open, then the second round at Wimbledon.