Box Score

SAN MARCOS, Texas – For the second match in three days, Texas State fell in a five-set match to an opponent it was tied with in the Sun Belt Conference standings. Friday night the Bobcats dropped to 13-8 on the season and 3-3 in the SBC with a loss to Arkansas State, 3-2 (24-26, 21-25, 25-22, 25-20, 15-12), after going up 2-0 in the match.
 
Shelby Vas Matt tallied her sixth double-double of the season and her third in a row. She finished with 15 digs and 10 kills, but Alexandra Simms led the Bobcats with 17 kills. Just behind her was Amari Deardorff with 16 kills and just three errors and a .333 hitting percentage. No other Bobcat had more than the six kills Ashlee Hilbun put down.
 
Sierra Smith followed her record-breaking 37-dig match with 24 digs Friday night. She also notched an ace and five assists while Caylin Mahoney doubled up with 44 assists and 12 digs. She added four kills and two aces. Kelsey Weynand continued to play well in the back, registering a season high 16 digs.
 
Molly Ahrens, the team leader in blocks, continued to do what she does best. She was in on seven block assists while Deardorff helped put down four blocks to help the team to eight blocks on the night.
 
Texas State fell behind in the first set, 19-13, but stormed back with a 6-1 run to pull within one, 20-19. Simms had two kills in the run while Mahoney and Deardorff each put one down. Arkansas State finally stopped the run with a Texas State error and a kill from Sadie Clark.
 
With a three-point lead for the Red Wolves, the Bobcats came back again thanks to an ASU error and a Vas Matt kill. Arkansas State bounced back though and made it set point with a Kelsey Reis kill, 24-22. The Bobcats, however, closed out with four points in a row. Other than an ASU error, three Bobcats tallied a kill to close it out: one each from Deardorff, Vas Matt and Hilbun for the 26-24 first-set win.
 
There were a few big runs in the second set as well. After Texas State went up 2-0, Arkansas State scored four consecutive points, but Texas State regained the lead with a 5-0 run after trailing 11-9. Three errors from Arkansas State and two kills from Simms made the run.
 
Arkansas State answered though, with a four-point run of its own after trailing 15-12. The Red Wolves kept the lead from there until Texas State tied it, 20-20, on another Simms kill. With an Arkansas State 22-21 lead, the Bobcats closed out again with four consecutive points including an ace from Mahoney and a kill from Deardorff.
 
Unfortunately for the Bobcats, Texas State could not close out the rest of the match as Arkansas State won the final three sets to pull ahead in the SBC standings. The Bobcats will see an even tougher foe Sunday when UALR comes to Strahan Coliseum at 1 p.m. The Trojans of UALR are tied with Western Kentucky atop the SBC with a 6-0 conference record after beating UT Arlington, 3-1, Friday night.