After nearly knocking off the Lady Buffs in game one, the Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball squad fell to a powerful West Texas A&M squad three games to none.
The 31-29, 30-8, 30-18 victory improved West Texas A&M’s record to 13-3 and 1-0 in league play while the Javelinas fell to 3-12 and 0-3 in Lone Star Conference play. The Lady Buffs have won eight straight. All three of their losses have come to teams ranked in the top-10 in the nation.
Kristena Herrera (Houston Cypress Ridge) led the Javelinas in kills for the third consecutive match with eight while Danielle Godfrey (Houston Crosby HS) chipped in with seven.
Heidi Scheopner (Harlingen South HS) led the Javelinas with 13 assists and six blocks.
“We blocked really well in game one,” said Javelina head coach Jane Kieschnick. “After that they turned it up a notch, we didn’t have any ball control and we got real predictable. The first game we didn’t get rattled, but in the second and third games we got rattled. West Texas stepped up and did what they needed to do in games two and three.”
Texas A&M-Kingsville had 12 of its 20 blocks in game one while out-hitting the Lady Buffs .213 to .059. The Javelinas had 15 kills, five from Herrera, to just five errors in the first game.
The Javelinas led by as many as five, 16-11, before the Lady Buffs scored seven of the next nine points to tie the game at 18. Neither team led by more than two points the rest of the game.
A kill by Scheopner tied the match at 29, but the Javelinas committed a ball handling error on their own serve to lose a point and West Texas A&M’s Rachel Altman put away a kill to win the match 31-29.
The Javelinas struggled mightily in game two, losing 30-8, then lost star freshman Chelsea Zunker to an ankle sprain in game three, falling 30-18.
Texas A&M-Kingsville has the weekend off before traveling south to face UT Brownsville Monday and returning home Tuesday to host UT Pan American.
