If the Lady Cougars were tempted to look ahead, they resisted that temptation. College Station set the tone by dominating the opening game and never really let Consol (12-20, 3-3) gain meaningful traction in any game.

"There was absolutely no looking past this game," College Station coach Kristen Grimes said. "It's a rivalry. We came here expecting nothing but Consol's best. I think we did a really good job preparing for this match. We worked really hard and we left [practice] on a good note yesterday, so we were very confident coming in."

The Lady Tigers brought a three-match winning streak into the battle between schools just a few miles from each other. After putting up a fierce battle in a five-game loss against Rudder two weeks ago, the Lady Tigers have followed with lackluster home losses to Bryan and College Station.

Consol fell behind 12-3 in Game 1 and couldn't manage to work out of the sluggish start. The Lady Tigers were riddled with mistakes, allowing College Station to score 27 points on Consol errors.

"We didn't bring our best," said Consol coach Jennifer Kazmierski, like Grimes a former Texas A&M player. "When you make errors, you can't beat a team like College Station. You're not going to be able to beat any team."

The Lady Cougars stunned Consol right away, putting together a pair of five-point runs early in the opening game. College Station took the last nine points in a row, a spurt that included two kills apiece from Kassidy McCabe and Hannah Ness, along with a block and a kill by Mary Pettibon.

"I liked the positive energy," McCabe said.

While Consol was playing sloppily, the Lady Cougars had a relatively clean performance, especially in the first two games. College Station gave up only one point on an error in the first game and had seven errors during the first two games while Consol made 22.

In the third game, College Station maintained control despite Grimes shuffling her lineup to get more players into the match and rest Pettibon, who has been battling back problems all season. Pettibon played sparingly in the third game and had one kill, but the Lady Cougars clicked with the combination of middle hitter Shelby Sumlin and reserve setter Maya Hinson.

"We have been stressing big-time playing a consistent game, avoiding the roller coaster you can see with teams making errors here and big plays there," Grimes said. "Whether that means just rallying with them or having somebody who's on, we want to be consistent."

Grimes praised her team's improvement on defense, and the Lady Cougars enjoyed a huge edge in that category thanks in large part to strong blocking. College Station scored six points on blocks and spoiled many other attacks, while Consol scored on two blocks.

The visitors also dominated the serving game, capitalizing on the serve receive problems that have plagued Consol this season. The Lady Tiger setters rarely got the ball in position where they could consider setting up more than one attacker.

"When you're out of system so much, it doesn't allow hitters to get into a rhythm," Kazmierski said.

Sumlin led the Lady Cougars with eight kills. Haley Hines and McCabe added seven each, while Ness had six. Lydia Wagner dished out 15 assists and Hinson had eight, all in the third game. Libero Brady Gillum topped the team with 12 digs.

McKenzie Dimery had five kills and 11 digs to pace Consol, which got four kills apiece from Madie Welch and Emily Edwards. Haley Slocum finished with 15 assists.