KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team won their ninth straight over Eastern New Mexico 3-1 (26-24, 21-25, 25-17, 25-23) Friday night in Gil H. Steinke Physical Education Center-Hampton Inn Court.
The Javelinas improved to 19-13 overall and 8-7 in the Lone Star Conference while the Greyhounds fell to 13-19 on the season and 4-12 in conference play.
Krystal Faison recorded her 18th double-double of the season with 17 kills and 10 digs.
Haley Hutchinson hit .318 on her way to record a new season-high of 11 kills. Also hitting over .300 in the match were
Madison Brabham (.429),
Ashley Bukowski (.313) and Faison (.361).
Casey Klobedans finished with 50 assists, six digs and four blocks.
Defensively, Brabham tied her season best with six blocks and Hutchinson added four rejections.
Brett Zaccardo was credited with 17 digs to give her 600 for the season. She is just the third Javelina ever to record 600-plus digs in a season.
For Eastern, Laure Frye recorded a match-high 22 kills. Both Brooklyn Biel and Courtney Lawson reached double-figures in kills with 11 and 10, respectively. The Greyhounds came in leading the LSC in service aces but were held to only one on the night.
ENMU jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the first set with the Blue and Gold's only points coming on a kill from Hutchinson and combined block by Brabham and Klobedans. TAMUK responded with a 9-2 run capped off by a block from Hutchinson and Klobedans.
A 6-1 scoring burst by the Greyhounds, all of their points coming on kills from Frye, gave them a 17-13 advantage. TAMUK fought back to tie the score at 20-20 on Faison's fifth kill of the stanza. The teams traded the next eight points until ENMU committed two errors in-a-row to give the Hogs the first set.
Four straight points put Eastern up 8-4 and for the rest of the second stanza. The Greyhounds recorded 16 kills and a .250 attack percentage to TAMUK's 10 kills and .081 attack percentage.
Brabham recorded her fifth kill of the match to put the Javelinas up 3-1 early in the third. ENMU fought back to tie the set but the Blue and Gold went on a 6-2 scoring burst to keep them in front for good.
Set four began with Eastern taking a 5-2 advantage in part to three straight errors committed by TAMUK. A Greyhound ball handling error was followed by kills from Bukowski and Hutchinson to tie the score. However, ENMU responded with four of the next five points stay in the lead.
The Javelinas fought back to the set 13-13 after kills by Bukowski and Faison and solo rejection courtesy of Hutchinson. Eastern regained the lead but a 5-1 run allowed the Blue and Gold to take the advantage back.
A bad set by the Hogs allowed ENMU to knot the score at 23-23. Klobedans responded with a quick strike and then the Greyhounds hit into an attack error to end the match.
TAMUK concludes the regular season at home on Saturday against West Texas A&M at 2 p.m.
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