KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team heads to the Lone Star Conference Tournament in Stephenville, Texas with an opportunity to qualify for the first time ever to the NCAA Tournament in program history. First up for the fourth seeded Javelinas is a 5 p.m. match with Cameron, the fifth seed, in Wisdom Gym on Thursday.
Entering the eight-team tournament, the Blue and Gold are 19-14 overall and went 8-8 in conference play. The Aggies are 16-9 on the season but have lost nine of their last 12 since winning their first 13 contests of the season.
Scouting Texas A&M-KingsvillePacing TAMUK offensively is
Krystal Faison with 374 kills, 3.04 k/s, 35 service aces and 19 double-doubles.
Valarie Moehrig goes into the tournament with 343 kills this season and
Ashley Bukowski is right behind her with 342.
Casey Klobedans has been credited with 1,236 assists this season, the third most in program history in a season. She also leads the Javelinas with a .287 attack percentage and has 148 kills.
Haley Hutchinson paces the squad with 119 blocks and 24 solo rejections. Second with 94 blocks is fellow freshman
Madison Brabham.
Leading the LSC with 305 digs and 5.08 d/s in conference action is
Brett Zaccardo. For the season, the Amarillo, Texas native has 615 digs, third highest total in a single-season in school history, and averages 5.00 per set.
Scouting CameronKate Evans leads CU with 284 kills, 2.93 k/s and 26 aces. She is third on the team with a .224 attack percentage behind Kayla Allen (.233) and Jenna Gillean (.278). Gillean goes in with 263 kills and Jordan Williams has added 206.
Tori Luckenbill paces the Aggies with 764 assists and 8.49 a/s. Playing in 47 sets over 21 matches is Madison Holle, totaling 218 assists for an average of 4.64 per stanza.
Defensively, Gillean heads into the tournament with a team-high 81 total blocks and 15 solo rejections. Allen is second with 72 blocks, seven of which she rejected by herself. Cristina Viera has tallied 399 digs (4.11 d/s) and Evans has been credited with 304.
All-Time vs. CameronThe Aggies lead the all-time series 22-11 and have won all six contests that have taken place at a neutral site. In the two regular season matches this season, the visiting team won both times. When playing each CU in the conference tournament, the Javelinas and Aggies have split the two meetings since 1991. Both ended in four sets with TAMUK coming out on top in 1997 but falling to the Aggies in 2002.
TAMUK LSC Tournament HistoryTexas A&M-Kingsville will be making their fifth consecutive Lone Star Conference Tournament appearance under head coach
Tanya Allen. Last year the Blue and Gold fell in three sets to Tarleton State. The Javelinas are 7-23 all-time in the conference tournament with their last win coming in four sets over Central Oklahoma in 1998.
Live stats and video will be available for free for every match of the tournament. Links for TAMUK's matches can be found on the volleyball schedule page.
For full coverage of Javelina volleyball, follow @JavelinaVB on Twitter and Instagram and like the Javelina Volleyball page on Facebook.
