The Bobcats’ volleyball team increased its winning streak to 13 after sweeping the University of Texas at Arlington 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-21) Oct. 31 on the road.
With the win, Texas State completed a weekend sweep of UTA, including its 3-0 win on Oct. 30. Head Coach Sean Huiet was pleased with his team’s performance in hostile territory.
“It was a great win and weekend,” Huiet said. “UTA is very young but a great team, so to come in and sweep them twice at their place is big. It is a good momentum builder for us as we prepare for the end of the season push.”
Texas State is now 16-1 overall and 11-0 in the Sun Belt Conference. The UTA Mavericks have an overall record of 8-3.
The opening set was tightly contested with nine ties and five lead changes. The set began with the Mavericks taking a 2-0 lead after a kill from freshman outside hitter/middle blocker Briana Brown assisted by junior setter Kylee Kapp, followed by an attacking error by Texas State.
After trailing 3-1, the Bobcats managed to even the score 5-5 and took their first lead of the game with a kill by sophomore outside hitter Lauren Teske off an assist from junior setter Emily DeWalt, making the score 6-5.
After several ties and lead changes, Texas State went on a 7-1 run, including four straight kills by junior outside hitter Janell Fitzgerald, to take the lead 17-13 and held the lead for the remainder of the set.
Texas State went on to win the first set 25-19 with a final kill by Fitzgerald off an assist by DeWalt.
The Bobcats recorded 19 kills off a .326 hitting percentage. Fitzgerald led all players with eight kills, and DeWalt led with 17 assists in the set.
To start the second set, the Mavericks took an early 2-0 lead with kills from Brown and sophomore outside hitter Devon Martinka. Both sides then struggled, combining for nine errors to make the score 7-6 with UTA still in front.
Down 8-7, the Bobcats went on a 6-0 run beginning with two kills and a solo block from senior middle blocker Tyeranee Scott to take the lead 13-8.
Huiet praised both Scott and junior middle blocker Jillian Slaughter for their contributions in the last two games.
“I thought our middles did a great job this weekend,” Huiet said. “Both [Slaughter] and [Scott] are hitting for high efficiencies and doing a great job blocking.”
The Bobcats kept up the momentum as they led the Mavericks for the rest of the set, ultimately winning 25-14 to take a 2-0 lead.
Texas State was active defensively, holding UTA to an abysmal .000 hitting percentage in the set. Scott hit .714 off seven errorless attacks, had five kills and a block in the set.
The third and final set was defined by big runs from each team. The Mavericks scored the first point with a kill from freshman outside hitter Brianna Ford off an assist from freshman setter Mollie Blank. The Bobcats responded with a 5-2 run to take a 5-3 lead.
After back-and-forth points from both teams, Texas State led 9-6, before going on an 8-0 run to extend the lead to 17-6.
UTA went on a run and eventually closed the gap to 23-20.
The Bobcats managed to hold off the Maverick comeback and won the set 25-21 to win the match 3-0 and complete a sweep of the two-game series.
Scott had double-digit kills for the fourth time in six matches and led the ‘Cats with 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .522 to go along with two solo blocks. Fitzgerald had 11 kills and a career-high four solo blocks on her way to six total blocks. DeWalt had 35 assists and eight digs. Sophomore defensive specialist Michelle Foster had a career-best 10 digs.
For the Mavericks, Kapp led the team with a hitting average of .500 and 13 assists. Townsend led UTA with nine kills.
Coming up next for the Bobcats is the Arkansas State Red Wolves on Nov. 6 at the First National Bank Arena in Jonesboro, Arkansas.