GOODWELL, Okla. – The Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team easily handled New Mexico Highlands 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-14) Wednesday afternoon in the Oscar Williams Fieldhouse on the campus of Oklahoma Panhandle State. It was the first of five matches over four days for the Javelinas.
With the win, the Blue and Gold improve to 10-8 while the Cowgirls fall to 5-11.
Krystal Faison led TAMUK with 16 kills and a .412 attack percentage. She fell one dig shy of recording her 11 double-double of the season. Adding eight and seven kills were
Ashley Bukowski and
Valarie Moehrig, respectively.
Sophomore
Casey Klobedans was credited with 35 assists, nine digs and two blocks. Fellow classmate
Brett Zaccardo recorded 17 digs and a career-high four service aces. At the net,
Haley Hutchinson had three blocks, two of which were solo rejections.
Kills by Moehrig and Bukowski helped TAMUK jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first set. The Javelinas would stretch their advantage to 17-8 after a service ace from Zaccardo and kill courtesy of Moehrig.
However, NMHU fought back to tie the score at 24-24. Moehrig recorded a kill and the Cowgirls were called for a ball handling error to put the Hogs up one set to none.
NMHU jumped out to an early 4-1 advantage to start the second stanza. A kill by Faison began a run of seven consecutive points for the Blue and Gold. The Cowgirls answered back by cutting TAMUK's lead to 9-8 but two errors by NMHU and a Moehrig kill propelled the Javelinas to a sizeable advantage the rest of the way.
Bukowski recorded a solo block as the Hogs started the third set by taking nine of the first 11 points and lead the entire way. TAMUK forced NMHU into 11 attack errors and held them to a -.122 attack percentage while finishing with 13 kills and hitting .385.
The Blue and Gold are back on the court in Goodwell at 7 p.m. against the Aggies.
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