HONOLULU, HI — When
Emily DeWalt arrived on the Texas State campus, the Helotes, Texas native just wanted playing time, so she put in the work.
Five seasons later, DeWalt added yet
another gem to her
already glowing college volleyball résumé as the four-time Sun Belt Setter of the Year surpassed the 5,000-career assist milestone during Texas State's four-set win over West Virginia Sunday afternoon. She joins Kristy Braun (1991-94) and Nicky Rose (1995-98) as the only student-athletes in program history to accomplish the feat.
DeWalt (5,015) also joined Washington's Ella May Powell (5,144) as the only active Division I student-athletes to have been credited with 5,000-or-more assists during their collegiate volleyball careers.
The historic moment came during the late stages of the third set as
Caitlan Buettner setup DeWalt by receiving a serve from West Virginia's Samiha Foster. DeWalt, standing on one side of the court, bumped the ball 28 feet across the width of the floor to outside hitter
Jada Gardner, who sent the volleyball into a void in the back right corner of the Mountaineer defense for a kill.
DeWalt went on to record 15 more assists during the rest of the third set and entirety of the fourth, and, as a result, passed Rose (5,010) for second place on the program's career assist list. DeWalt will now enter this weekend's Bobcat Invitational trailing Braun by 502 for the top spot.
FROM HEAD COACH SEAN HUIET
"Emily runs the offense. She knows the system. I say it all the time, she just does things you can't teach, so it was nice to be able to find our offense and get it going a little bit. We've challenged them. We came here to win volleyball matches. We thought we played really well against Hawaii but had a little bit of a letdown and couldn't finish. Then we didn't like how we played against UCLA, so we challenged them today and I thought the team stepped up."
FROM SETTER EMILY DEWALT
"It felt great being able to reach that milestone in a win, especially being able to leave Hawaii on a high note is great so we can carry the momentum into our tournament next weekend."
STAT LEADERS
SCORES BY SET
- 1st | Texas State 25, West Virginia 17
- 2nd | Texas State 25, West Virginia 18
- 3rd | Texas State 17, West Virginia 25
- 4th | Texas State 25, West Virginia 18
MATCH NOTES
- After being credited with 28 kills on a .426 attack percentage in three matches throughout the weekend, senior middle blocker Tessa Marshall was named to the Outrigger Volleyball Challenge All-Tournament team. Marshall also added nine block assists and finished with 32.5 points in 10 sets played.
- Outside hitter Janell Fitzgerald finished Sunday afternoon's match as the lone member of the Texas State volleyball program to record at least one statistic in five different categories. Fitzgerald, in four sets played, finished with 13 digs, 10 kills, two block assists, one service ace and one assist en route to earning 12 points.
- The Texas State offense finished with four student-athletes having reached 10-or-more kills in the match. Jada Gardner led the way with 16, while Tessa Marshall added 11. Both Janell Fitzgerald and Caitlan Buettner finished the afternoon with 10 each.
- Sunday marked the second time on the weekend both Janell Fitzgerald and Emily DeWalt recorded double-doubles in the same match. Against Hawaii Thursday night, DeWalt was credited with 34 assists and 11 digs, while Fitzgerald had 15 kills and 12 digs. To close out the weekend's action, DeWalt finished with 45 assists and 11 digs, while Fitzgerald had 10 kills and 13 digs.
UP NEXT
- With six straight matches away from San Marcos, Texas, the Texas State volleyball program will now turn its attention to hosting the Bobcat Invitational. The Bobcats will open play against Sam Houston on Friday, Sept. 9 at 2 p.m., before playing Ole Miss later that day at 7 p.m.
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.
