Sept. 11, 2009

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Box Score

SAN MARCOS, Texas - Team effort leads Texas State past Texas Southern, 3-0, in its first match of the CenturyTel Premier this afternoon. The Bobcats were unstoppable as they pounded out 45 kills, hitting .500 to sweep the Tigers. Today's win ended a three-match skid by the Bobcats as they improved their record to, 2-7.

"We needed to get back on the winning track and I was very proud of the way the team played today. When you play a team like Texas Southern, it is very easy to play at their level, slow the game down a bit, but we did a great job at maintaining play at our pace," said head coach Karen Chisum. "Shelbi (Irving) and Jessica (Weynand) had a hand in that, and they both did a great job on the floor today."

Texas State jumped out to an 8-0 to start in the first, forcing Texas Southern to take a timeout. The Bobcats hit .560 to win the set, 25-12 to start play in the tournament. Middleton tallied four kills in the set, while Irvin added eight kills. Irvin served up six points, including two aces to give the Bobcats a 24-9 advantage. Texas Southern's Kierra Whitaker had an attack error to end the match and put the Bobcats up, 2-0.

The third set was much like the previous two sets. Texas State came out strong and never surrendered the lead any in of its three matches. The Bobcats captured the set, 25-10, to take the win and improve to 1-0 in the CenturyTel Premier.

The Bobcats hit their highest attack percentage of the year (.500), as they held the Tigers to just 13 kills (-.048). Irvin finished with 17 assists and three digs, while Weynand had eight kills and three digs.

Texas State will play again today at 7:00pm, when they host Hofstra. Hofstra is 0-1 in CenturyTel Premier play as they lost to Texas A&M in the first match, 3-0.

"This team is so used to winning, but if you go back and look at the records from last year, we had an almost 50-50 preseason record," added Chisum. "Our goal is to take these next two weeks and ready ourselves for conference. Wins always help your confidence and today's win was definitely a boost for our team."

CenturyTel Premier Results
Friday, Sept. 11
Match 1: Texas A&M 3, Hofstra 0
Match 2: Texas State 3, Texas Southern 0
Match 3: Texas A&M vs Texas Southern 5pm
Match 4: Texas State vs Hofstra
Saturday, Sept. 12
Match 5: Hofstra vs Texas Southern 12pm
Match 6: Texas State vs Texas A&M 2pm