FORT WORTH, Texas – Texas State faced off against Big 12 opponent TCU in the team's season opener in front of 1,795 fans in Fort Worth Friday night. The Horned Frogs were able to come out on top of the Bobcats, sweeping Texas State, 25-17, 25-15, 25-17.
 
Junior Kelsey Weynand led the Bobcat offensive attack with a team-high seven kills while newcomer Jaliyah Bolden added six kills. Three others finished with three kills apiece.
 
With two new setters on the squad, the Bobcats tried them both out in the opener. Erin Hoppe gave out 11 assists with six digs in her debut while Emily Shelton finished with 10 assists and two digs. They both added a kill.
 
Defensively, the Bobcats outblocked TCU, 6-4, with four blocks coming in the final set. Morgan Lewis led the squad with three block assists, but Lauren Kirch had a solo block with two assists. Bolden added two block assists.
 
On the back line, sophomore Alex Silver stepped up to play libero most of the match and finished with seven digs, tying Weynand for the team lead. Hoppe added her six digs while Lewis tallied five.
 
The Horned Frogs came out strong in the opening set to win 25-17. The Bobcats had two less errors than TCU, but the Horned Frogs tallied 17 kills to just seven for Texas State. Weynand led the squad with two kills in the opening set. Shelton led with six assists and two digs while Silver also had two digs in the frame.
 
Despite only three errors in the first set, the Bobcats could not get many kills down, registering seven on 27 attempts for a .148 hitting percentage. Meanwhile, TCU hit .353 in the opening set for the early advantage.
 
Defensively, Texas State stepped up in the second set to knock TCU's hitting percentage down from .353 to .265 and drop the TCU kills from 17 to 11. However, Texas State's errors went up from three to 11 while the Bobcats put down 11 kills in the set, same as TCU. The Horned Frogs were able to still take it by a score of 25-15 to improve to 2-0 in the match before the intermission.
 
In the second set though, Hoppe took over at setter and gave out nine assists in the frame, setting up Weynand and Bolden for a combined seven kills. Bolden had four in the frame for the most kills by any player on both teams for the second set. Hoppe had one play that especially stood out, digging up a ball to set up Bolden perfectly for a kill to surprise TCU.
 
Texas State also found a way to put down two blocks in the second set. They came close together, and Lewis was in on both. She teamed up with Kirch for the first one and followed up by blocking one with Shelby Vas Matt. Both teams had two blocks in the second frame.
 
The Bobcats began to settle down in the third set, putting down four blocks with two assists from Bolden and a solo and an assist from Kirch. Both Weynand and Kirch led the team in kills in the final set, but the Bobcats only tallied eight in the frame while TCU had 16.
 
Next up for the Bobcats in the Crosstown Challenge will be a matchup with No. 17 Arizona at 11 a.m. Saturday followed by a 7 p.m. match against SMU. Both matches will be at Moody Coliseum on the campus of SMU.