KINGSVILLE, Texas (Volleyball) – Texas A&M University-Kingsville (17-5, 7-3 LSC) puts its undefeated home record on the line in the second meeting against Tarleton State University (17-2, 9-1 LSC) on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. inside the Gil E. Steinke Physical Education Center-Kingsville Hampton Inn Court.
Live stats and video stream will be accessible at JavelinaAthletics.com. Kevin Piel will call the action on the Javelina Sports Network, beginning at 6:45 p.m.
The Javelinas are riding a five-match win streak and have won their last ten sets. The team was perfect last week with sweeps versus Cameron University, Midwestern State University and St. Edward's University, and outscored their opponents 225-155 to wrap up the first half of Lone Star Conference competition. As a unit, they hit .224 and average 12.99 kills per set. The team leads the LSC with 146 aces and 197.5 total blocks.
Krystal Faison and Lexi Wick leads the club with 247 and 220 kills, respectively, as well as tying for a team-high of 32 service aces. Wick also leads with 95 total blocks including a league-high of 26 solo blocks. Ashley Bukowski has registered 194 kills and 22 aces this season followed by sophomores Madison Brabham and Haley Hutchinson who has put up 141 and 129 kills in that order. The two-year vets are also key on the defensive side of the net with Hutchinson collecting 84 blocks and Brabham at 69 blocks. Casey Klobedans holds the top slot in the conference with 861 assists and adds 60 kills, 35 blocks and 20 service aces.
"I am very proud of how we finished the first half of conference play" said by head coach Tanya Allen, who eclipsed a career milestone of 100 wins at the helm of the program after defeating Midwestern State. "It will be nice to be in front of our home crowd tomorrow. We take on a tough Tarleton State team and I would love to have the SPEC rockin!"
Indeed, the SPEC will need to be rocking with a solid Tarleton State team coming to town, who is currently on an eight match win streak and 5-0 on the road this season, setting up an intriguing match between unbeaten programs. The TexAnns are led by Hailey Roberts as the junior sits in the top five of Division II athletes with 347 kills in 2016. Roberts also adds 37 blocks and 21 aces to her stat sheet. Hannah McManus has 138 kills this year and leads the team with 67 total blocks, while Autumn Taylor follows with 111 kills. Setter Jordan Keamo sets the standard with 727 assists and 42 aces to go along with 47 kills.
When the two clubs met earlier this season in Stephenville, the TexAnns walked away victorious after four nail-biting sets (22-25, 20-25, 25-20, 18-25). Faison paced the Javs with 10 kills and 13 digs while Roberts dominated for the TexAnns with 26 kills and 11 digs. In the all-time series, TAMUK trails 18-27 but is 11-9 against TSU at the SPEC.
For full coverage of Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball, please follow @JavelinaVB on Twitter and Instagram, like the official Facebook page of Javelina athletics (/JavelinaSports), and subscribe to the JavelinaAthletics YouTube channel.
