TROY, Ala. – Texas State went to Troy with the Trojans looking to set school records for a winning streak and a home-match winning streak. The Bobcats ensured those plans didn't come to fruition as Texas State won, 3-1 (23-25, 25-13, 25-14, 25-12), to improve to 13-10 on the year and 8-2 in Sun Belt Conference action.
 
After a tight first set that saw 10 ties and four lead changes and led to a Bobcat loss, Texas State pulled together and went on to dominate the match going forward. The Bobcats only allowed five more ties and two more lead changes the rest of the way in an outstanding performance that saw Texas State finish with a .367 hitting percentage on just one more attempt than Troy. Texas State had 20 more kills and 16 less errors than Troy to hit the strong percentage.
 
The Bobcats stymied the Troy defense with too much offensive versatility. Jordan Kohl led the team in kills with 13 on a .370 hitting percentage while Kelsey Weynand finished with 12 kills on a .391 percentage and Shelby Vas Matt put down 11 more on a .320 percentage. Morgan Lewis added nine more kills on a season-high hitting percentage of .643 while Madison Daigle put down eight more kills.
 
Playing one of her better matches was setter Erin Hoppe. She gave out 40 assists, six more than the entire team of Troy. She added four kills without an error on five attempts to hit .800 and baffle Troy. She also finished with an ace, six digs and two blocks.
 
Kohl and Lewis led the team in blocks, making it incredibly difficult in the fourth set for Troy. Kohl had six blocks while Lewis was in on five. After six blocks in the first three sets, those two and the rest of the Texas State defense combined for five blocks in the final set.
 
On the back end, Sierra Smith led the team in digs with eight as she took over at libero the final three sets. The Bobcats had balance on the defensive end as well though as seven players finished with three digs or more.
 
The opening set proved to be a back and forth battle with 10 ties and four lead changes. The Bobcats, however, did use a four-point run to go from down 7-5 to leading, 9-7. It wasn't enough, though, as Troy kept chipping away to win the first frame, 25-23.
 
Weynand led the team in kills with four while Brenna Lyles tallied four digs to lead the team. Kohl put down two blocks for the team lead in the first set.
 
The second set looked quite a bit different with the Bobcats seizing control early. Texas State built an early 7-2 lead with three kills from Kohl in the run. Later, the Bobcats put together a 4-0 run with kills from Kohl and Vas Matt to go up 17-9, and they never looked back. They ended the match on a 6-2 run with kills from Weynand, Daigle and Hoppe.
 
After Weynand tallied four kills in the first set, Kohl paced the Bobcats in the second with five kills. Weynand, however, put down four more while Daigle also struck four kills to give the Bobcats three players with four kills or more in the second set alone.
 
Setting it up for the hitters was Hoppe. She gave out 13 assists in the second frame and added two kills to be a scoring threat and keep the Troy defense off balance.
 
The defense also improved in the second set with Smith running at libero. The team went from 10 digs in the opening frame to 14 in the second.
 
The third set looked much like the second as the Bobcats built a 2-1 lead in the match after the intermission. The Bobcats came out hot on a 10-1 run to start the set with two blocks and two aces. Lewis, Vas Matt and Kohl were in on the two blocks while Weynand served up the aces in the run. She would finish the frame with three aces and four in the match.
 
Texas State saw a third Bobcat lead the team in kills for a set to show the offensive versatility. Lewis tallied five kills in the set while Vas Matt, Weynand and Kohl each put down three apiece. Meanwhile, after giving 13 assists in the second set, Hoppe gave out 12 more in the third.
 
In the fourth set, Troy played a much tougher game with the match on the line. The Trojans pulled to within one in the middle of the set, 12-11, but the Bobcats went on a 3-0 run started with back-to-back blocks to force a Troy timeout. Out of the timeout, Texas State tallied three more consecutive points to push the run up to 6-0 and force Troy's second timeout. Those three points started with another block for Texas State and ended with a kill from Kohl before the timeout.
 
The Bobcat block was too much for Troy to handle in the fourth and final set with Texas State putting down five blocks compared to the six the team had in the first three sets. After the blocking led to the big run from Texas State, the Bobcats pulled away in a hurry to finish the fourth set with a 25-12 win.
 
The Bobcats travel to Mobile, Ala., for a Saturday match against the Jaguars of South Alabama before returning home to host UL Monroe and Troy over Halloween weekend.