SAN MARCOS, Texas – For the fourth consecutive season, No. 11 Texas State (20-1, 15-0 Sun Belt) has reached 10 or more victories at home as they defeated UT Arlington (9-6, 9-6 Sun Belt) 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-17) Friday night at Strahan Arena. The win is not just the 14th sweep of this season, but also extends the Bobcats winning streak to 17 and they have won the last 13 head-to-head matches against UT Arlington.
 
The Bobcats hit .234 behind 46 kills in the match, while holding the Lady Mavericks to a .132 clip and 29 kills. Although UTA held the advantage in blocks 5-3, TXST won the battle on aces (2-0) and digs (62-50).
 
"I thought we were pretty sluggish tonight with Tyeranee [Scott] being out and other factors going in that made us on edge a little bit," said head coach Sean Huiet. "But I cannot say enough for how we rebounded. We felt a lot better in set three getting into a rhythm. We keep saying that we want to be playing our best volleyball going into next weekend. Overall I think we are playing well and although we had a little bit of a slow start but glad that we got the win in three sets."
 
Junior outside hitter Janell Fitzgerald had a match-high 13 kills behind a .333 hitting percentage (13-5-24). Sophomore outside Lauren Teske followed with eight kills and added seven blocks. Junior setter Emily DeWalt tacked on another double-double with 42 assists and 10 digs, while junior libero Kayla Granado had a team-high 16 digs and had one kill in the match. Junior middle blocker Jillian Slaughter led the team with two blocks to go along with seven kills, and senior setter Brooke Johnson also reached double figures with 10 digs.
 
Freshman outside hitter Briana Brown led UT Arlington with seven kills followed junior outside Brooke Townsend and freshman OH Brianna Ford with six kills. Freshman setter Mollie Blank led the way with 18 assists and junior setter Kylee Kapp had 11 assists and eight digs. Sophomore libero Alli Wells finished with a match-high 24 digs.
 
Set 1
The Bobcats jumped out to a 6-2 lead and led 15-12 at the first media timeout of the match. TXST continued to apply pressure out of the break by scoring four of the next five points that forced UTA to call its first timeout with the count at 19-13. The Lady Mavs would score just two points for the rest of the frame as Texas State cruised to a 25-15 victory led by five kills each from Fitzgerald and sophomore outside hitter Lauren Teske.
 
Set 2
The second stanza was a dog fight that had 16 ties and five lead changes. Neither team led by more than one point until the media timeout where the Lady Mavs held a 15-13 advantage. The Bobcats scored the first three points out of the timeout to regain the lead and ignited an overall 7-3 run to force a UTA timeout with the home team leading 20-17. UT Arlington responded with a 4-0 run to regain the lead 21-20, forcing Texas State to call a timeout, but the Bobcats bounced back and closed the set on a 5-1 run, highlighted by a 4-0 burst to win the set 25-22. Both junior outside hitter Kenedi Rutherford and sophomore middle blocker Tessa Marshall finished the set with four kills.
 
Set 3
Texas State led the entire third set and used a 4-0 scoring run to build a 13-8 lead to set the tone. The Lady Mavs could only pull within three points at 17-14 before the Bobcats took hit another gear and ended the set on a 5-1 run to win the set 25-17. Fitzgerald led the team with five kills and DeWalt had 15 assists and five digs in the set.  
 
UP NEXT
Texas State will play for a co-championship title at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14 against UT Arlington at Strahan Arena to complete the regular season schedule.
 
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