Texas State volleyball (17-11, 11-5 SBC) rolled into the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Foley, Ala., on an eight-match winning streak and looking to defend its conference tournament championship from a year ago.
A three-set sweep of Coastal Carolina (18-11, 10-6 SBC) ran Texas State’s winning streak to nine straight and advanced the Bobcats back to the Sun Belt tournament semifinals.
Senior middle blocker Jade Defraeye tallied a team-leading 11 kills on the day and also led the Bobcats with nine blocks on the day as well. Defraeye became the Bobcats’ all-time program record holder for block assists and her nine blocks tied a Sun Belt Tournament record for blocks in a three-set match.
The first set of the morning set the tone for the kind of match that played out over the course of the three sets. Despite Texas State ultimately sweeping Coastal, much of the match was as close as could be. The Bobcats’ largest lead in set one came on the final point when the four-point lead at 25-21 closed out the first set to give head coach Sean Huiet’s squad an early lead.
Texas State came out firing on all cylinders to begin the second set, coasting to an early 7-1 advantage, forcing a timeout from Coastal. Coming out of the timeout, the Chanticleers played a more rejuvenated style of volleyball, digging out of the early hole to knot the set at 18-18.
After allowing Coastal to crawl back into the second set, Texas State went on a 7-3 run to close out the second set for another 25-21 set victory to take a 2-0 lead.
Coastal held the lead for the first half of the third set, taking a 15-12 advantage before the Bobcats fought back to tie the set at 17-all. From there, both sides gave it all they had as Coastal battled and saved a match point, leading to a 24-24 tie. Despite Coastal saving one match point, redshirt junior outside hitter Samantha Wunsch put away back-to-back kills to send Coastal packing and the Bobcats through to the semis.
Texas State’s semifinal matchup will be a rematch of last year’s conference championship match against the Arkansas State Red Wolves (20-8, 12-4 SBC).
Match time against the Red Wolves is set for 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at Foley Sports Tourism Complex in Foley, Ala. The match will be streaming on ESPN+.
