HOUSTON – The Texas State volleyball team recorded a 3-2 (25-22, 25-23, 20-25, 16-25, 15-9) victory over Rice Tuesday night inside Tudor Fieldhouse.
 
The Bobcats (5-3) won their fifth match in a row in their first time being broadcast live on beIN Sports. The Owls (5-2) entered the match receiving votes in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll and suffered just their second setback of the season.
 
Three different members of the road team ended the night with double-doubles, led by 18 kills and 15 digs from senior Amy Pflughaupt. Junior Cheyenne Huskey tallied 17 kills and 15 digs, and true freshman Emily DeWalt recorded 55 assists, 13 digs and a match-high six blocks. Junior Micah Dinwiddie had a match-leading 34 digs, and sophomore Brooke Johnson (11) also finished with double-digit digs. Senior Madison Daigle also posted 14 kills.
 
Nicole Lennon paced the home team with 14 kills and 10 digs. Shelby Livingstone added 15 digs and 11 kills, while Kassidy Muse (14) and Grace Morgan (11) reached double-digit kills. Carly Graham contributed a double-double of 25 assists and 10 digs, while Adria Martinez dished out 18 assists of her own. Lee Ann Cunningham led the Owls with 30 digs.
 
Texas State led the night in kills (66), assists (65-51), aces (3-2), digs (102-87), and blocks (11-8). Rice led in attack percentage (.175-.127).
 
SET 1
Texas State captured the first set by a narrow 25-22 margin. Neither team held more than a three-point advantage at any given point in the opener. Rice dictated play early and controlled proceedings until the maroon and gold was able to flip an 18-17 deficit into a 23-20 advantage. The late surge would be all the visitors would need to snatch the first frame.
 
SET 2
The Bobcats were able to squeeze past the Owls 25-23 to move on top 2-0 on the night. Rice initially broke a 10-10 deadlock to take a 15-11 lead, but Texas State fought back into a 17-17 draw. TXST closed out the 9-1 run on top 20-17, but a quick three points from the Owls brought the set back on level terms. Both teams went on three-point swing to land into a 23-23 tie, and it was the Bobcats who were able to find the last two points needed to steal the period.
 
SET 3
Rice was able to turn another early lead into a set triumph after capturing the third 25-20. The home side used a 6-2 run at one point to take a 16-12 advantage. Texas State was able to get within a single tally at 17-16, but Rice stretched its lead back out to four at 21-17 and the home side never looked back.
 
SET 4
Rice drew even at two sets each after winning the fourth 25-16. Texas State enjoyed a brief 9-6 advantage that was quickly erased by the home team. The Owls went on a 5-0 run to pull ahead by two. After TXST tied the frame back at 13-13, Rice closed out the set on a 12-3 run.
 
SET 5
Texas State came out on top 3-1 in the deciding frame, but Rice powered ahead into an 8-4 lead and looked to be well on its way to victory. The Bobcats would not be denied, however, and closed the night on an 11-1 run. TXST initially took a 10-9 lead to force the Owls to burn through both timeouts. An attack error from Lennon pushed the maroon and gold on top 13-9, which marked the first time all evening that the visitors led by more than three points.
 
Texas State evened the all-time series with Rice at 17-17-1. This was the first meeting between the two programs inside Tudor Fieldhouse since 1999.
 
The treacherous week for Texas State is slated to continue when the maroon and gold heads to Austin, Texas, to face No. 6 Texas at 7 p.m. Sept. 6.
 
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