FORT WORTH, TX — With Texas State volleyball head coach
Sean Huiet looking for the right combination during the second set of a five-set match against Abilene Christian Friday afternoon, the third-year program leader looked down the Bobcat bench.
There was
Lauren Teske. Standing among her teammates and yelling encouraging remarks towards the court.
With Texas State (7-3) trailing the Wildcats, 12-4, midway through the set, Huiet called upon his redshirt-senior outside hitter to enter the match. She went on to record back-to-back kills to cut the deficit. And while the Wildcats (3-7) tried to fend off the rally to take the set, the fire had been lit by the Schertz, Texas native.
As Abilene Christian held a four-point lead and needed only five more to close out the second set, Teske and the Bobcats went on a 9-2 scoring run to take a 2-0 set lead. Even when the Wildcats rallied to take the match's third and fourth sets, everything Teske touched turned to gold.
Teske went on to finish with a career-high .706 attack percentage to pair with her season-high 12 kills and zero attack errors on 17 total attacks. It was the first match for the redshirt-senior without an attack error on double-digit attacks since a three-set match against Miami (FL) on Sept. 10, 2021. It was, however, the first match of her five-year Bobcat career she finished without an attack error while finishing the match with double-digit kills and total attacks.
FROM HEAD COACH SEAN HUIET
"I thought
Lauren Teske did a great job when she came in, so kudos to her. She did a really good job at the net with 12 kills and no errors on 18 attacks for a .706 (attack percentage), which is pretty big time. I thought she did her job when we needed her most. I thought Daleigh (Ellison) did a good job off the bench as well. Tessa, with her knees, we are trying to rest her as much as we can, but she also did a nice job of coming in and bringing some energy. We'll learn from this and move on."
STAT LEADERS
SCORES BY SET
- 1st | Texas State 25, Abilene Christian 19
- 2nd | Texas State 25, Abilene Christian 23
- 3rd | Abilene Christian 25, Texas State 23
- 4th | Abilene Christian 25, Texas State 23
- 5th | Texas State 15, Abilene Christian 11
MATCH NOTES
- Friday's match against Abilene Christian marked the first time Emily DeWalt has been credited with 60-or-more assists in a single match since totaling 64 in a four-set win against Little Rock on Oct. 23, 2020. Her performance against the Wildcats marked just the second time in her career she surpassed the 60-assist plateau.
- With her nine-kill performance against Abilene Christian, outside hitter Janell Fitzgerald will enter Texas State's two matches on Saturday with 1,499 career kills. She sits just 59 kills shy of passing Lawrencia Brown (2005-08) for second on the program's career kills list.
- Freshman middle blocker Bailey Hanner earned her first career start Friday afternoon. She becomes the first of the six-member Bobcat freshmen class to earn a starting assignment.
- By finishing the match with 14 kills, senior middle blocker Jillian Slaughter set a career high in the statistical category. Slaughter's previous high for most kills in a single match was 11, which she accomplished twice with the most recent happening against North Texas on March 25, 2021.
- With her .571 attack percentage against the Wildcats, senior middle blocker Tessa Marshall extends her consecutive matches played with an attack percentage of .500-or-higher to three. Marshall now has four matches this season with an attack percentage of .500-or-higher on 10-or-more attacks throughout the match.
UP NEXT
- Following Friday night's five-set win, Texas State will now look to close out its stay in Fort Worth with two more wins on Saturday, Sept. 17, when the Bobcats take on Alabama at 1:30 p.m. CT and TCU at 7 p.m. CT.
FOLLOW US
- For the latest information on the team, follow @TexasStateVball on Twitter, @TxStateVolleyball on Instagram and Facebook. General athletic news can also be at @TxStateBobcats on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
