Box Score
Dallas, Texas – The Texas State volleyball team did its best to come back from a two-sets-to-none deficit, but the team's rally came up just short as the Bobcats fell, 3-2 (25-22, 25-23, 17-25, 19-25, 15-13) on Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum.
The Bobcats dropped to 2-4 this season after going 0-3 in the SMU Doubletree Invite this weekend. Texas Tech, who finished 1-2 at the tournament, improves to 2-4 overall with the win.
Freshman right side hitter Amari Deardorff earned all-tournament team honors as she led the team with a .309 hitting percentage and was second with 41 kills in the three-game tournament. Deardorff also posted eight digs and five blocks.
“It means a lot because it's only my second tournament,” Deardorff said. “I'm picking it up fast and getting in the swing of things so I'll be ready to play for my team later on in the season.”
Deardorff was a consistent performer all weekend for the Bobcats. In the team's first match, she had a team-high 20 kills and .421 hitting percentage. Then, she posted nine kills and two blocks against SMU before finishing with 12 kills and a .364 hitting percentage in Saturday's contest against Texas Tech.
Statistically, the Bobcats performed better than the Red Raiders in multiple areas. Texas State hit .312 as a team for the match compared to just a .222 hitting percentage for Texas Tech. The Bobcats also had 73 kills and 73 digs compared to just 59 kills and 70 digs by TTU. The blocking numbers were also slightly in Texas State's favor as the team held an 11.5-11.0 advantage.
Working against the Bobcats were 13 service errors, while the Red Raiders committed just five errors at the service line.
AJ Watlington led three Bobcats with double-digit kills as she posted a career-high 20. The senior had just six errors on 49 attempts for a .286 hitting percentage for the match. Additionally, Watlington tallied a team-high 16 digs for her third consecutive double-double.
Also posting double-digit kills for Texas State were Preslie Alexander (15) and Deardorff (12). Alexander, who also had 14 digs in the contest, recorded her first career double-double along with a pair of aces and a .268 hitting percentage.
Shelbi Irvin was the third Bobcat with a double-double as she recorded a team-high 41 assists with 10 digs.
Ashlee Hilbun led the Bobcat block with 10 stuffs for the match, the highest single-match total for any Bobcat so far this season. Hilbun also led the team with a .500 hitting percentage after putting down nine kills on 18 attempts without an error.
After narrowly falling in the first two sets, Texas State rebounded to take the third and fourth sets convincingly. The deciding fifth set also looked to be in control as the Bobcats jumped out to an 8-5 lead, but Texas Tech made a late run for the victory.
With the score tied 10-10, a TTU kill gave the Red Raiders the lead before Alexander equaled the effort to tie the set. Hilbun found the back corner of the TTU court wide open on the next point for a kill that game Texas State a 12-11 lead, but Tech answered with back-to-back kills for the 13-12 lead.
Following a Texas State timeout, Texas Tech committed a service error that again tied the set, but the Red Raiders regrouped and scored the next two points on a kill and a block to capture their second win of the season.
Next up for the Texas State volleyball team is Prairie View A&M on Tuesday, September 7 at Strahan Coliseum for the Bobcats' home opener. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m. For ticket information, visit www.txstatebobcats.com or call 245-2272.
