SAN MARCOS, Texas – Despite losing the team's primary setter for most of the season due to injury and trying to recover from losing three senior starters from 2013, Texas State put together an impressive season and fought all the way to the Sun Belt Conference Championship match for the second consecutive year. Unfortunately, the UALR Trojans were too much for the Bobcats Saturday as Texas State dropped to UALR, 25-18, 25-20, 25-12.
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Texas State finished the season at 22-13 and 15-5 in the Sun Belt Conference, finishing second in the conference for an impressive start to the team's tenure in the SBC. In their first two years in the conference, the Bobcats have won an SBC Championship and finished second.
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Freshman
Jordan Kohl continued to pace the Bobcats offensively in the championship match, finishing with a team-high eight kills while
Shelby Vas Matt and
Lauren Kirch added seven each to prove that the Bobcats are full of talented youth with two freshmen and a sophomore leading the way.
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For Kohl's efforts throughout the tournament, the SBC Freshman of the Year was named to the Sun Belt Conference Championship All-Tournament Team, as was senior setter
Caylin Mahoney. Mahoney gave out 21 assists in her final match as a Bobcat.
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Vas Matt led the team with 12 digs while libero
Sierra Smith added 11 to finish the year with 520 digs, the fourth best ever in a season at Texas State. Kirch led the team in blocks with four while
Brooke Smith and
Alexandra Simms added three each to help the Bobcats finish with seven in the match.
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Unfortunately, UALR's dual attack from the SBC Offensive Player of the Year Edina Begic and her sidekick Sonja Milanovic proved to be too deadly. The Bosnian duo combined for 38 of UALR's 51 kills in the match with a combined hitting percentage of .405.
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The Bobcats had an impressive start to the match, going up 4-1 in the opening frame. Kohl started the match with a kill and added another one along with a kill from
Kelsey Weynand and a UALR error gave Texas State the early lead. The Trojans quickly fought back to tie it at 4-4 and claimed the team's first lead at 7-6 on a kill from Adisa Hodzic. The UALR lead would grow to as high as seven points in the first set, first at 17-10, then at 24-17, until the Trojans earned a 1-0 lead in the match when Sonja Milanovic put down the final kill of the opening frame.
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Texas State kept the second set close, going back and forth throughout the frame, but the Bobcats claimed a 12-11 lead on a block from Smith and Simms. The Trojans responded though, scoring four consecutive points to build a 15-12 lead and pushed it up to 21-16 on a kill from Begic. With UALR up, 23-17, the Bobcats were able to hold off the inevitable with a kill from Kirch, a UALR error and another Smith and Simms block, but Milanovic responded with a kill to claim set point and an ace to go up 2-0.
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After the intermission, UALR was able to put together its best set of the day, hitting .500 with 19 kills and three errors on 32 attempts. The Bobcats only managed eight kills in the final set with five errors for the team's worst hitting percentage of the day, a .094. Begic scored with nine kills and just one error while Milanovic put down seven errorless kills in the frame to clinch the match and the SBC Championship for UALR.
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