Nov. 20, 2004

Box Score

BEAUMONT - Southland Conference regular-season co-champion Texas State survived a battle in the semifinals of the 2004 SLC Volleyball Tournament Saturday, winning in five games (30-24, 24-30, 30-16, 28-30, 15-11) over rival Texas-Arlington.

With the win, the Bobcats improved to 26-5 and advance to the championship game of the SLC Tournament to take on co-champion Stephen F. Austin. Sunday's tournament championship match is slated for 4 p.m. in the Montagne Center on the campus of Lamar University.

SFA advanced to the championship game with a 3-1 (30-21, 30-23, 32-34, 30-26) win over McNeese State Saturday.

Sunday's match will mark the second straight year and the seventh time since joining the Southland Conference in 1987 that the Bobcats have advanced to the tournament's championship game.

In Texas State's first game of Saturday's match against UTA, the intrastate rivals exchanged leads eleven times and combined for 70 digs (35 each) before the `Cats broke a 24-24 tie with a 6-0 run to win 30-24.

The Bobcats hit .206 compared to .180 for the Mavs in the opening frame as junior outside hitter Lizzy Nwoke led the way with six kills while senior outside hitter Stephanie Torregrosa recorded 11 digs.

UTA would draw even in the second game behind a strong defensive effort as Morgan Rogers and Heather Dunn combined for 17 of the teams 34 digs and held the Bobcats to .093 hitting in a 30-24 win.

Texas State answered with an offensive flurry in game three, as the `Cats jumped out to a 6-1 lead and finished the game on a 10-2 run to take a 2-1 match-lead with a 30-16 win.

The `Cats won the game behind .388 hitting including six kills from Torregrosa while the defense held the Mavericks to .077 hitting and eight attacking errors.

Texas-Arlington used a 6-0 run in game four behind a team-leading five kills from Caley Smith to draw the match even and force a deciding fifth game.

In the fifth game (15-11), Texas State built a 11-4 lead but were forced to contend with a resilient Maverick team to the end as UTA cut the lead to 14-11 with a service ace before the `Cats could finally secure the victory.

For the match, the Bobcats collected 88 kills on .210 hitting while the Mavericks hit .148 with 67 kills.

Two Bobcats recorded over 20 kills led by Torregrosa with 22 kills while Nwoke had 21. 

The Bobcats also tied a school record by finishing with 141 total digs as Torregrosa, Krystal Kolkhorst, Kristy Jones, and Amy Ramirez each had 25 digs while Karry Griffin added 24.

Kolkhorst also added a match-high 75 set assists giving 1,441 total assists this season which ranks third all-time at Texas State. 

The Mavericks were led by Smith who finished with 20 kills while Morgan Rogers led the match with 32 of her team's 132 digs.

Texas-Arlington finishes its season at 24-7.