Texas State volleyball took the first game of the Southwest Showdown with a 3-1 win over the hosts, University of Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) on Thursday night at UTRGV Fieldhouse in Edinburg. After losing the first set, the Bobcats bounced back to take the next three sets.

Redshirt junior Samantha Wunsch dominated the court with her second consecutive game of 20+ kills. Junior Brooke Bentke had a career best performance with 11 kills and 3 aces as well as tying her career best in digs with seven helping to bring the Bobcats to victory.

UTRGV led the first set with six team blocks. The Bobcats were bugged by attacking errors and couldn’t get through the Vaquero block losing the first set 20-25.

The Bobcats bounced back taking the next three sets. The Bobcats had 15 kills on 31 swings in the second set. Texas State found its rhythm, getting through the Vaquero blocks. UTRGV didn’t add to their total in set two. Senior Bailey Hanner and Wunsch contributed to the Bobcats 25-20 win in the second set with five kills each.

Freshman Britton Finley came out swinging in the third set with five kills on six swings. The Bobcats increased their hitting average to .625 with only one error and 16 kills, giving the Bobcats a 25-17 win.

UTRGV had multiple errors throughout the fourth set and had a hitting average of .188. Senior Jade Defraeye ran the court this set with five kills and had seven blocks throughout the night. With Defraeye’s kills and the Vaquero’s multiple errors, the Bobcats came out on top to win the set 25-20.

The Bobcats take on Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the second day of the tournament on September 5 at 3:30 p.m. The tournament will wrap up on September 6 at noon against UTEP. Both games will be on ESPN+.