Oct. 5, 2004
Box Score
San Antonio, Texas - For the second straight meeting in the I-35 shootout, the Bobcats won in a five-game cliff-hanger (27-30, 31-29, 30-22, 16-30, 15-8) over the Roadrunners of Texas-San Antonio (7-9, 4-3) at the Convocation Center.
With the win, Texas State (11-4, 5-2 SLC) moves into a three-way tie for first place in the Southland standings with Northwestern State (9-7, 5-2) and Texas-Arlington (13-3, 5-2). The `Cats also extended its winning streak to a season-best six matches, and have won four of the last six meetings with UTSA.
"This was a battle," said Head Coach Karen Chisum, "but this is what Division I volleyball is all about."
The match had several momentum shifts as the Bobcats lost the first game after surrendering a 20-17 lead, only to see the Roadrunners squander a late lead in the second game as Lizzy Nwoke's kill and solo block broke a 29-all tie and evened the match 1-1.
The Bobcats then rolled in the third game as the team scored eight-straight points behind Kacee Rogers' serves and .209 hitting by Texas State to take a key 2-1 lead.
However, the Roadrunners stormed right back in game four as the team hit .432 and committed just one attacking error, compared to 10 by the Bobcats, in a 16-30 rout.
"We committed a lot of errors in game four but you have to give credit to a very good UTSA team because they forced a lot of those errors."
In the fifth and decisive game, the Bobcats quickly took the Roadrunners and its crowd out of the match with a six-point run thanks once again to the serving of Rogers (15 kills, 7 digs, 6 blocks) and the solid passing of Krystal Kolkhorst who recorded a double-double with 55 set assists and 14 digs for the match.
"Kolkhorst did a terrific job all night setting up our attack," Chisum said.
The Bobcats had another strong defensive performance behind senior libero Kristy Jones, who rallied the squad in the huddle after a tough game four, and added 20 digs on the night.
"If I had to give a game-ball to someone tonight it would go to Kristy because she did a great job leading this team on defense."
For the match, the Bobcats recorded 71 kills on .175 hitting, while the defense held UTSA to 63 kills on .154 hitting.
Nwoke led all players in the match with 20 kills, which marks the third match in which she has recorded 20 or more kills.
Senior Stephanie Torregrosa just missed her third-straight double-double as she recorded 9 kills and a team-best 23 digs.
"This is a huge win for us, especially on the road," said Chisum. "There is a big difference between being 5-2 and 4-3 in this conference."
Texas State will return home to play host to two Southland Conference matches beginning on Friday Oct. 8 against Northwestern State followed on Oct. 9 versus Louisiana-Monroe.
