The Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelina volleyball won the first two games, but couldn’t put Tarleton State away, losing to the TexAnns in five games.
The Javelinas won the first two games 30-27 and 30-25, but lost the last three, 30-28, 30-24 and 15-10.
The loss dropped the Javelinas to 3-15 overall and 0-4 in the Lone Star Conference while Tarleton State improves to 7-8 and 3-2.
“Our kids got mentally and physically tired,” said Javelina head coach Jane Kieschnick. “We’ve got to be able to play a five game match and pushed through. We didn’t relax and Tarleton pushed through. We needed to finish game three and we didn’t have the depth to do it. Kristen Chancellor did a nice job and Tara Grier did a good job in the back. We had five freshmen out on the floor in any given time and they did well. We didn’t finish.”
Freshman Adina Gray (Corpus Christi Flour Bluff) led the Javelinas with a career-high 16 kills. Kristin Chancellor (Bellville) also had a career-high in kills with 12. Heidi Scheopner (Harlingen South) added 11 and Chelsea Zunker (New Braunfels Canyon), playing for the first time in a week, chipped in with 10.
Kirby Krueger (New Braunfels Canyon) had 33 assists while Scheopner added 29. Grier (Poth HS), starting the first match of her career, led the Javelinas with 20 digs.
After winning the first two games, Texas A&M-Kingsville led the TexAnns 23-20 midway through game three. Tarleton State rallied to take a 26-24 lead, but the Javelinas scored three straight points to take a 27-26 lead. Both Gray and Chancellor had kills during the rally.
The Javelinas grabbed a 28-27 lead on an error by Tarleton State, but the TexAnns won the final three points, all on kills to grab the momentum.
Texas A&M-Kingsville will host Eastern New Mexico Thursday at 7:00 p.m.
