ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Krystal Faison put up 20 kills and 21 digs, her third consecutive match with at least 20 digs, to help lead the Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team to a 3-2 (25-18, 28-26, 20-25, 22-25, 15-8) victory over Maryville Saturday evening in the Moloney Arena. With the win, head coach
Tanya Allen won her 68th match in charge of the Javelina program to tie her for the most victories in school history with Jane Kieschnick (2000-06).
After the first weekend of action TAMUK is 3-1 while the Saints fall to 1-3. The Blue and Gold also finished second at the Maryville Invitational behind Central Oklahoma.
Along with Faison,
Ashley Bukowski (15 kills, 18 digs) and
Casey Klobedans (49 assists, 14 digs) also recorded double-doubles.
Valarie Moehrig finished with 12 kills as well.
Defensively,
Haley Hutchinson had four blocks with two of them being solo rejections. Both Bukowski and Klobedans had three blocks apiece and
Malayzia Winbush added two.
Brett Zaccardo closed out the tournament with 18 digs.
Both Faison and Zaccardo were named to the all-tournament team. Joining them on the squad were Central Oklahoma's Barbara Jackson (Tournament MVP) and Taylor Davis, Southern Wesleyan's Sarah Hughey and Paige O'Conner and Taryn Trubich of Maryville.
At the halfway point of the first set the Blue and Gold were finally pull away from the Saints with a 7-2 run to go up 20-15. During the scoring stretch, Faison posted three kills and Bukowski nailed a service ace.
In set two, it appeared that MU was going to win easily after going up 17-10. The Javelinas had other plans. They came back to tie the contest 23-23 behind two kills and service aces courtesy of Faison, two Moehrig kills and the Saints committing six errors.
The teams traded the next six points until Bukowski and Faison recorded back-to-back kills putting TAMUK ahead two sets to none in the match.
Momentum stayed with the Javelinas early in the third set when a kill by Faison put them up 7-4. However, MU responded by shutting TAMUK's attack down while the Saints came alive at the net. MU hit .220 with 15 kills to pull away and take the set 25-20.
The Saints held the Blue and Gold to nine kills and forced just as many attack errors in set four. Their 15 kills and .220 attack percentage help the tournament hosts to force decisive fifth set.
In the Javelinas third five-set contest of the young season, the score was tied once two points but afterwards it was all TAMUK. The Hoggies were successful on 12 attack attempts with four coming from Bukowski and Moehrig. On the other side of the court, the Saints struggled to get five kills on a .074 attack percentage.
Next weekend TAMUK plays in their Emerald Beach Hotel Javelina Volleyball Invitational next weekend (Sept. 11-12). The Blue and Gold play their first match of the season in Gil H. Steinke Physical Education Center-Kingsville Hampton Inn Court at 12 p.m. on Friday against St. Mary's.
For full coverage of Javelina volleyball, follow @JavelinaVB on Twitter and Instagram and like the JavelinaVB page on Facebook.
