SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State, chosen to finish second in the Sun Belt Conference in the preseason, started the conference season right with a 3-1 victory over Georgia State Friday night (25-20, 25-18, 20-25, 25-17). With the win, the Bobcats improve to 6-7 on the season and 1-0 in SBC action.
Sophomore setter
Erin Hoppe looks to have taken over the position for the Bobcats and Friday night she showed why. She gave out 43 assists, her second best output as a Bobcat, for an average of 10.75 assists per set. In addition to running the offense efficiently, she added six digs, five kills and four blocks, one of which was solo.
For Hoppe to do so well, though, the Bobcat hitters had to be putting down kills.
Jordan Kohl led the team with 14 kills, but
Morgan Lewis proved to be a terror the Panthers could not handle. Lewis finished with 13 kills on a .440 hitting percentage. That's the second most kills she has put down as a Bobcat and her best hitting percentage. In addition to that, she continued her stellar play as of late on the defensive end with a solo block and five block assists to help the Bobcats to 11 blocks on the night.
In addition to Lewis's six blocks,
Madison Daigle and Hoppe finished with four each while Kohl added three more. Daigle, just a freshman, added 10 kills to her block total while
Kelsey Weynand and
Haley Henderson combined for 11 more.
Sierra Smith averaged four digs per set with 16 on the night to lead the team while Weynand and Vas Matt teamed up for 22 more digs. The Bobcats finished with 55 to Georgia State's 50 digs.
Texas State started the match hot, putting down 14 kills on 30 attempts with just three errors for a .367 hitting percentage in the opening set. Georgia State's defense tightened up in the second set, but so did Texas State's. The Bobcats held Georgia State to just a .026 hitting percentage with 10 errors on 38 attempts in the second frame.
In the third set, the Bobcats finally slowed a bit, hitting nine errors, their worst number of the night. Georgia State used 13 kills, led by Kitan Ajanaku with five, in the third set to pick up the team's lone victory of the night.
After that, the Bobcats went looking for the finish. Both
Ali Hubicsak and Smith served up aces in the fourth set, two of the team's five on the night. Hoppe gave out 10 assists while Kohl put down six kills and Henderson finished the final set with four more. Texas State put down 17 kills to just nine for Georgia State in the final set while Smith struck up six digs and Weynand had four in the set.
Next, the Bobcats will look to carry momentum into Texas State's next match against the Ragin' Cajuns of UL Lafayette on Sunday at 12 p.m. After that, the Bobcats will take to the road for matches at Georgia State and Appalachian State next weekend.
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