Box Score

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State turned in a strong performance for senior night, fittingly led by the seniors, for a 3-1 victory over Georgia State (25-18, 19-25, 25-18, 25-12), bringing a four-match winning streak to a close for the Panthers.
 
Amari Deardorff led the Bobcats offensively as she usually does, finishing with a match-high 15 kills and a .324 hitting percentage. Ashlee Hilbun added 10 kills while Molly Ahrens added nine kills with a match-high .368 hitting percentage.
 
In addition to the seniors giving fans plenty of positive memories in their final home match, freshman Shelby Vas Matt and junior setter Caylin Mahoney turned in outstanding performances. Vas Matt finished with a double-double with 11 kills (.276) and 10 digs while Mahoney also doubled up with 36 assists and 18 digs to lead the team in both categories. She also added eight kills on a .350 percentage.
 
Sierra Smith also added a double-double, finishing with 12 assists and 16 digs while Kelsey Weynand matched her in digs with 16. At the net, the Bobcats put down nine blocks. Ahrens finished with four block assists and a solo while Hilbun also tallied a solo with three block assists. Deardorff added three assists of her own.
 
Texas State set the tone early in the match, jumping out to an 11-1 lead with Smith serving nine of the points with an ace in the run. From there, Georgia State tried to fight back in the opening set, but the early Bobcat lead was way too much to overcome.
 
The second set was a different story for Texas State. The Bobcats hit .256 as a team and in the three sets they won never hit below .276. In the second set, however, Texas State only hit .073 with just 10 kills and seven errors. Six of those kills came from Hilbun and Deardorff combined with two from Ahrens, but the Bobcats could not generate a steady offense in the second frame.
 
Georgia State jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the set, but Texas State came back to go up, 13-7. The Panthers rallied at that point with a 9-0 run that included two service aces and three Texas State errors. With the lead, 16-13, the Panthers plodded out a victory in the second set.
 
Texas State came out of the break ready in the third set, hitting the team's best percentage of the match - .356. Of the 25 points the Bobcats scored, 19 of them came on kills with just three errors in the set. Deardorff led the squad with five kills in the third frame while Ahrens tallied four. Six Bobcats notched two or more kills with no Bobcats hitting for multiple errors.
 
After such a strong performance in the third set, Texas State kept the momentum and dominated the fourth set en route to the victory.
 
The Bobcats will finish out the season with four matches on the road before heading to Troy, Ala., for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. Next up for Texas State will be ULM at 7 p.m. Friday followed by a 1 p.m. match against Louisiana on Sunday.