SAN ANTONIO – After watching a 2-0 lead evaporate, the Texas A&M Kingsville volleyball team regrouped in the fifth set to claim a 3-2 victory over Incarnate Word on Tuesday night
The Javelinas won 25-20, 25-20, 19-25, 21-25 and 15-10. Kingsville is now 5-1 on the season and earned its 16th win 2hich is the most since 2009.
With the victory, the Javelinas moved to 16-12 on the season, while Incarnate Word drops to 9-19 on the year. Kingsville moves two games ahead of UIW as the teams’ battle for the sixth seed in the Lone Star Conference along with Abilene Christian. Kingsville is 8-10 while the two other schools are 6-12.
Five Javelinas finished the night with at least eight kills with four reaching double figures as setter Sarah Fountain shared the wealth to the tune of 51 assists. Dedra Brown led the way with 16 kills, while Kelsey Washington had 14. Stephanie Johns and Bethany Friesenhahn had 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Kelsee Felux added eight kills.
Defensively, Kalinda Graves was stellar with a career-high 32 digs. It was just the second time this season a Javelina player posted 30-plus digs as Ali Insell had 34 earlier in the season. As a team, Kingsville just missed 100 digs for the third time this season finishing with 98. Aside from Insell, Washington had 21, Insell 16 and Friesenhahn had 13.
The Javelinas close out the regular season this weekend when they head west to West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico. They face West Texas at 7 p.m. on Friday and Eastern New Mexico at 3 p.m.