PORTALES, N.M. – The Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball extended their winning streak to three with a 3-1 victory (25-16, 25-22, 16-25, 25-17) over Eastern New Mexico Friday night in Greyhound Arena.
With the win, the Javelinas improved to 12-8 and 3-4 in the Lone Star Conference while the Greyhounds fell to 7-11 overall and 1-6 in conference action.
Pacing the Blue and Gold with 17 was
Valarie Moehrig. A 16-kill, 11-dig performance from
Krystal Faison was her 11th double-double of the season. Also reaching double figures in kills (11) and leading the team in attack percentage (.375) was
Ashley Bukowski.
Casey Klobedans finished with a match high 45 assists while adding five kills and a season-high tying four blocks.
Defensively,
Brett Zaccardo was credited with 17 digs.
Madison Brabham matched her career best of six blocks to pace all players.
A close opening set early saw TAMUK go on a 5-2 run started by back-to-back kills by Faison. The scoring burst put the Hogs in front for good. In the stanza, the Javelinas recorded 15 kills with a .440 attack percentage and held ENMU to seven kills and a -.103 hitting percentage.
Eastern jumped out to an early advantage and would eventually extend the lead to 18-12. A kill by Bukowski that was followed by consecutive kills courtesy of Klobedans jump started the Blue and Gold. They would take 13 of the final 17 points to go up two sets to none in the contest.
Set three went the Greyhounds' way the entire way. They recorded 13 kills and held the Hogs to only nine kills, four coming from Moehrig.
The fourth stanza was close for the first half as both squads could only muster a one point lead. Knotted 9-9, Brabham and Klobedans combined for a block on Frye to begin a 9-2 run to catapult the Javelinas ahead for good.
Next up for TAMUK are two matches Saturday to close out the road swing. The Blue and Gold play Newman (3:30 p.m.) and West Texas A&M (12:30 p.m.) at The Box in Canyon, Texas.
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