Sept. 17, 2005

Box Score

SAN MARCOS - It took five games and looked bleak through the first two, but Texas State used wins in games three, four and five to beat Texas-Arlington 3-2 (24-30, 28-30, 30-23, 30-19, 16-14) in a pivotal SLC match Saturday at Strahan Coliseum.

Texas-Arlington (2-9, 0-2 SLC) took an early 2-0 lead in the match, but Texas State stormed back to win the final three games, including a barn-burner in game five for the five-game match victory.

Texas State (3-6, 2-0 SLC) struck first in game one on a Brandy St. Francis kill that followed a long opening rally, but after trading points, UTA grabbed its first lead at 5-4 and extended it to 7-4 on a Bobcat error. Kelly Fletcher cut the Maverick lead to two with a Bobcat kill that made the score 7-5.

The Bobcats tied game one on a Jesi Grisham service ace at 9-9, and regained the lead at 11-10 on an Elizabeth Nwoke kill.

After a pair of ties, UTA took its second lead of the game at 14-13, but the Bobcats again tied it on Fletcher's second kill of the game. The Mavericks took their first two-point lead of the game at 17-15, and extended the lead to 19-15 on consecutive kills.

Texas-Arlington's biggest lead of the game was seven (23-16), and the Mavs scored seven more despite eight closing Bobcat points to win game one 30-24.

Texas State opened game two by again scoring the first point, which was answered quickly by UTA, and the teams traded points until a 6-3 Maverick run gave UTA an 8-5 lead.

From that point, Texas State outscored UTA 9-6 to tie the game at 14-14, and the Bobcats took their first lead of the game at 15-14 on a kill by Nwoke. An errant Bobcat serve gave the Mavericks a point and tied the game at 15-15, but the `Cats rallied, scoring three consecutive points that made the score 18-15 and prompted a Maverick time out.

Texas State extended the lead to 21-15 with two points out of the time out, but UTA went on a 13-6 stretch to take a 28-27 lead late in the game. The Mavericks nailed game point on a Torrie Dacus kill to complete a seven-point come back and take a 30-28 game two win. The win gave the Mavericks a 2-0 lead in the match.

Texas-Arlington took its first 1-0 lead of the match on a Bobcat error to open game three, and Texas State followed with its first game-three point on a St. Francis kill to tie the game at 1-1.

After UTA tied the game at 4-4, Texas State went on a 6-1 run to take a 10-5 lead in the game. UTA cut the lead to 10-8 with three unanswered points, but the Bobcats again rallied, scoring six unanswered and moving the lead to 14-8.

Another UTA rally cut the Bobcat lead to 15-13, but Texas State outdid the Mavs 15-10 to win game three 30-23 and cut the UTA match lead to 2-1.

Texas State scored the first four points of game four, and extended the lead to 5-1 following the first UTA point of the game. The Bobcats pushed the lead to 11-4 on back-to-back Ashley Stark blocks, and following a UTA time out, Stark notched her third consecutive point to run the lead to 12-4.

After UTA cut the deficit to 15-9, the Bobcats used a 7-2 run for a 22-11 lead in the game. Texas State and UTA each scored eight points to end the game, but the Mavericks were unable to recover in the 30-19 Bobcat win that tied the match at 2-2.

The decisive fifth game of the match began with traded points and the back-and-forth trend continued until the Mavericks took their first lead of the game at 12-11. A Lawrencia Brown kill tied the game at 12-12, but the Mavs regained the lead on an errant Texas State attack.

UTA got its shot at game point, leading 14-12, but Texas State came back with consecutive points and tied game five at 14-14. Back-to-back Maverick errors gave the `Cats a 15-14 lead and game point at 16-14 for the 3-2 match win.

Nwoke led the `Cats with 26 kills, while four other Bobcats, including St. Francis (19), notched double-digits in the kill column as well. Grisham's 82 assists from the setting position also led the Bobcats, while Amy Ramirez (31 digs) and Brittany Prewit (26 digs) were the Bobcat defensive leaders on the night. St. Francis also led the `Cats with five blocks.

The win moved the Bobcats into a first-place tie in the Southland Conference, and the Bobcats will go for three-in-a-row Tuesday when they travel to Sam Houston State for a 7 p.m. match with the Bearkats.