Dec. 3, 2004
Box Score
AUSTIN - The Texas State volleyball team finished the 2004 campaign with a 3-0 (12-30, 22-30, 15-30) loss to No. 11 Texas (25-4) in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night in Austin, Texas.
The Southland Conference champions end the season at 27-6.
Texas will advance to play Michigan, who won its first-round match over Rice 3-1 (31-29, 24-30, 30-23, 30-20) on Saturday.
"We have achieved every goal that we set this year," said Head Coach Karen Chisum.
"This year we talked about our goal to win 25 matches and not just win the Southland Conference, but making it to the NCAAs."
"To win the conference tournament and be playing here tonight was a great accomplishment."
The match also marked the final appearances of seniors Krystal Kolkhorst, Kacee Rogers, Stephanie Torregrosa, and Kristy Jones who end their careers having led Texas State to back-to-back Southland Conference titles in 2003 and 2004 and a SLC Tournament title this year.
"Hats off to my seniors and the legacy that they have left," Chisum said.
The match started with the Longhorns jumping out to an 8-1 lead before the `Cat defense forced UT into an attacking error and junior Lizzy Nwoke punched in Texas State's first two kills of the night to cut the lead down to five (4-9).
However the UT defense locked in, forcing 27 Bobcat attacking errors and .074 hitting as the `Horns took a 1-0 lead with a 30-12 victory.
In the second game (22-30), senior Kacee Rogers connected on a team-high five kills and capped a 4-0 run by the Bobcats with a service ace to cut the Texas lead to four (15-19).
The Bobcats stood their ground throughout the second frame, hitting .231 while adding 12 digs on defense before Texas, who committed seven service errors, hit .450 with 21 kills to go into the break with a 2-0 lead
The `Cats continued to battle in the third game (15-30) as Texas State took the lead three times behind two kills from Nwoke and one from freshman Lesley Bowers before the `Horns used a 10-2 run to secure the victory.
"We came up here prepared to play one of the top-ranked teams in the nation and that's what we did," said Chisum.
"We got into a hornet's nest no doubt. We were rattled early, and unfortunately we weren't able to show the same ballgame that we've played for the past 21 matches.
For the match the Bobcats hit .210 with 30 kills, while UT finished with 58 kills on .526 hitting.
Nwoke finished the match with a team-high 11 kills while Rogers added seven kills on .500 hitting.
"I thought Nwoke and Rogers did a terrific job for us tonight," Chisum said.
Kolkhorst recorded 26 set assists while Jones led the way defensively with 11 digs.
"We've been on cloud nine for the past two weeks, having the season we had and ending it the way we did winning our conference tournament," said Kolkhorst.
"Tonight was a disappointment, but our season has been anything but a disappointment. Bringing our program from where it was the past two years has been really fun for us."
