ARLINGTON, Texas – Texas State dropped the first set of Thursday night's match at UT Arlington, but never looked back after that en route to a dominating 3-1 victory over the Mavericks (21-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-14). Three Bobcats hit for double-digit kills with two more finishing with nine kills while the team's duo of setters combined for 53 assists to bust a six-match home winning streak for UTA. Texas State served up six aces with nine blocks to improve to 12-9 overall and 7-1 in the Sun Belt Conference.
Junior outside hitter
Shelby Vas Matt matched her season high in kills as she led the team with 16 on an impressive .344 hitting percentage. She added two aces, 14 digs and three blocks.
Jordan Kohl finished with 13 kills while
Kelsey Weynand tallied 12 more. Both
Lauren Kirch and
Morgan Lewis added nine kills apiece with Lewis finishing with a .500 hitting percentage.
Offensively, the Bobcats put down 61 kills, 24 more than UTA's 37. Texas State also had a healthy advantage in digs, 66-48, and in blocks, 9-7.5. Freshman
Madison Daigle led the team's efforts at the net with four block assists and a solo block. After her was Vas Matt with a solo and two assists and three more Bobcats with two block assists each.
Brenna Lyles played a strong match in her first start of 2015 at libero. She finished with 24 digs for a 6.00 digs per set average and added two assists. After Vas Matt's 14 digs was Weynand with 10 and
Erin Hoppe with nine.
In addition to Vas Matt's two aces, Hoppe added two more with an ace each for Weynand and
Emily Shelton. The setting duo of Hoppe and Shelton finished with 53 assists, 32 for Hoppe.
Despite winning most of the categories in the opening frame, Texas State fell in the first set, 25-21. The Bobcats tallied 14 kills to just nine for UTA with 12 assists and 17 digs, both more than the Mavericks. Vas Matt led the squad with five kills in the set while Lyles tallied seven digs.
The opening set was tight for much of the way with both teams tied at 14-14 thanks to a kill from Vas Matt. From there, though, UTA took off on a 7-1 run to build a 21-15 lead. It was hard for the Bobcats to recover from that point, and the Mavericks took the set, 25-21. Texas State rebounded in the second set though.
Texas State used a balanced offensive attack in the second set to bombard the Mavericks. Both Weynand and Kohl struck for five kills apiece while Vas Matt and Kirch combined for seven more. The Bobcats put down 17 kills to UTA's 10 in the second frame.
Meanwhile, Texas State made the switch to a 6-2 rotation so Hoppe and Shelton combined for 14 assists while Lyles kept the defense on point with nine digs in the set. The Bobcats were never challenged in the second frame, coasting to a 25-19 win.
The third set proved to be just as competitive at the first two, coming down to the closest final score of the match to that point, 25-22. There were 10 ties and four lead changes in the set, but the Bobcats kept coming with their balanced attack as Vas Matt, Weynand and Kohl each put down four kills while Kirch and Lewis combined for four more. Hoppe and Shelton combined for 15 assists while Lyles kept her numbers up with six more digs. This time, the Bobcats outblocked UTA, 2-1, with Daigle in on both blocks.
The Bobcat blocking improved in the fourth and final set with four blocks from Texas State. Lewis led the team in kills with five in the set while Weynand added four more digs. The Bobcats started the frame on an 8-1 run to try to end it early. Texas State would push the lead to 11-2 and 14-3 before UT Arlington slowly began to work its way back into the set. Fortunately for the Bobcats, they built a lead too large for the Mavericks to overcome.
Ending the set on an exclamation point, Vas Matt served up two aces to give Texas State match point, and Weynand finished the match with a kill.
Texas State will continue its road trip with a match against conference leader Arkansas State, a team that is currently undefeated in Sun Belt Conference play. The Bobcats and Red Wolves will meet up for a 6 p.m. match Saturday.
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