ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team received a scare from Southern Wesleyan in both teams' season opener in John E. and Adaline Simon Athletic Center on Friday. The Javelinas defeated the Warriors 3-2 (25-13, 28-26, 23-25, 22-25, 15-11) in the first match of the Maryville Invitational.
TAMUK improves to 1-0 on the season while SWU begins 0-1.
Valarie Moehrig recorded a career-high and game best 22 kills. Also reaching double-digit kills were
Ashley Bukowski (13) and
Madison Brabham (11). Lone Star Conference Preseason Setter of the Year
Casey Klobedans was credited with 49 assists and set a school record with six service aces in a five-set match.
Defensively, Brabham had six blocks, a game high, and Moehrig contributed with five rejections.
Brett Zaccardo finished with 17 digs while
Krystal Faison and
Krystal Puente recorded 16 and 10 digs, respectively.
The Blue and Gold scored the first three points of the match on a kill by Moehrig and two blocks with that saw Brabham assist on both of them. SWU was able to pull to within one twice with the last time being at 5-4 before the Javelinas went on a 9-1 run to take control of the first set. During that stretch Bukowski had three kills while
Haley Hutchinson and Moehrig added two kills apiece.
Set two began with the Warriors jumping out to a 5-2 lead. Three straight points for the Blue and Gold was capped off by a service ace from Klobedans to tie the score.
Five of the next seven points were scored by SWU to go up by three. The Javelinas responded with five straight points, four coming on kills, to force a Warrior timeout.
Coming out of the short break, SWU tallied the next two points to knot the score at 12-12. A kill by Brabham started a 4-1 burst for TAMUK to put them ahead. However, multiple attack errors late in the set from the Javelinas kept the Warriors' hopes alive. With the score knotted 26-26, Bukowski recorded back-to-back kills to put the Blue and Gold up two sets to none.
The third set was close early until SWU scored six straight to take a 15-10 lead, forcing head coach
Tanya Allen to call a timeout. Brabham and Moehrig teamed up for a block and Brabham recorded three straight aces to cut the deficit to one.
SWU managed to stay just ahead of the Blue and Gold the rest of the way to take the set 25-23.
All the momentum seemed to be in the Warriors' favor in the beginning of the fourth set. They had an 11-9 advantage until TAMUK won six of the next nine points that was capped off on a kill from Bukowski to go back in front.
Faison recorded a service ace to push the advantage to 19-16. Three straight points went to SWU that tied the score and forced Allen to use a timeout.
Moehrig came out of the quick break posting back-to-back kills and the Warriors called their final timeout of the set. SWU responded by taking six of the last seven points to force a decisive fifth set.
The teams traded points most of the way through the decisive fifth set. With the score at 9-9, Moehrig recorded three consecutive kills to put the Javelinas in the lead for good.
Next up for the Blue and Gold is a match against Henderson State this afternoon. TAMUK concludes their trip to the "Show Me" state on Saturday with contests against Central Oklahoma and Maryville.
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