SAN MARCOS, Texas – After a 2023 season that saw the Bobcats finish top of the Western Division in the Sun Belt and get the first at-large bid to the NCAA tournament in program history, Bobcat volleyball has wrapped its 2024 spring season.
 
The team played matches with reigning national champion Texas, Texas A&M and UTSA. After an earlier start than normal against the reigning national champions in late February, the Bobcats finished out their spring season on a high note. 
 
"From the UTSA match until the end, there was a complete shift," said Head Coach Sean Huiet. "There was a shift to 'whatever my role is I'm going to do it.' It's hard in the spring with so many different lineups but it was good to see everyone buy in to their role. The [Texas A&M] match was so good because it didn't matter who played where, who did what, everyone was invested, and everyone was doing what they were supposed to do."
 
The Bobcats started out the spring season with a game at Texas there they held the Longhorns close in some sets and were able to get back into playing live games against another opponent for the first time since the 2023 season ended. 
 
After a couple weeks of works, the Bobcats had gone to UTSA for a second road spring game. Huiet felt like the game at UTSA was not his team's best outing, they were able to make some adjustments and have a talk about the team's culture that he saw improve the rest of the spring.
 
"The UTSA match was not our standard," Huiet said. "But we were able to flip that [in the home tournament] and being able to end on such a positive note [against Texas A&M] was huge. We've seen maturing from our team even though we are still so young. This team has been finding its identity."
 
After the match at UTSA, the Bobcats were able to host their annual spring tournament where they rematched with UTSA as well as played St. Edwards, Hill College, and Angelo State in quick-format hour-long matches.
 
To close things out, the Bobcats hosted Texas A&M and won four sets against the Aggies. Texas State was able to play 12 different players during the match, getting valuable time for all members, particularly last year's group of freshmen.
 
"You saw a lot of growth [from the freshmen]," Huiet said. "You saw growth in their physicality, in their maturity. They were all contributing and getting to play and doing big stuff. They all did well, even on the mental side of things. There were a lot of signs of maturity." 
 
The Bobcats retained most of its 2023 Sun Belt Conference West Division Champion team that earned the program's first at-large big to the NCAA tournament heading into the 2024 season. Losing just three players, coupled with a group of incoming freshmen and adding Louisville transfer Nina Moorer has the Bobcats in good shape as they prepare for the 2024 season.  
 
"Last year we felt like we had to prove to people that we were going to be really good because we had lost so many players the year before," Huiet said. "Now we've proved that, we got the first at-large bid in school history, we have to keep that standard and go harder. Now everyone knows Texas State is good and that that's just the culture."