MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Volleyball) – Texas A&M University-Kingsville (2-0) opened 2016 with two wins on day one of the Christian Brothers Invitational at the Canale Arena Friday, defeating Southwest Baptist University (0-1) 3-1, and upending Saint Joseph's College (0-2) in straight sets.
The Javelinas outhit their opponents .232-.071, registered 18 service aces and 18 total blocks. Krystal Faison led the way with 23 kills and averaged 3.29 kills per set. Lexi Wick came out of the gates hot with 19 kills and led the club with a hitting percentage of .500, 11 blocks and tied Ashley Bukowski for five service aces. Bukowski added 17 kills, Casey Klobedans averaged 9.29 assists per set and Krystal Puente averaged 4.71 digs per set in the pair of wins.
In the first match against Southwest Baptist, the Javelinas won 3-1 taking sets 2-4 in a convincing manner, 23-25, 25-14, 25-13, 25-17. Faison, Bukowski and Klobedans each belted their first double-doubles of the season. Faison recorded a match-high 14 kills and added 10 digs, Bukowski began her senior campaign with 11 kills, 19 digs and three service aces, and Klobedans registered 42 assists and 13 digs to go with her four blocks. After sitting out last season, Wick came out firing, finishing with 13 kills on .500 hitting, four service aces and three blocks. Hutchinson finished with a match-high five blocks.
As a unit, the Javelinas had 47 kills. TAMUK had nine total blocks and forced SBU into 41 total errors.
The Hogs dominated in the second match of the night against Saint Joseph's College, recording the first sweep of the 2016 season (25-12, 25-13, 25-17). Faison tied with a match-high of nine kills, while Wick had a match-high hitting percentage of .500, claimed 12.5 points and put down 8 total blocks. Wick, Bukowski, Hutchinson and Madison Brabham all ended the match with 6 kills. Klobedans paced the way with 23 assists and Bukowski and freshman Taliah Phipps each had two aces.
TAMUK hit .299 from the floor and held the Pumas to .071 hitting, 23 kills and zero service aces.
GAME INFORMATION
Sets: Texas A&M-Kingsville 3, Southwest Baptist 1
Records: Texas A&M-Kingsville (1-0, 0-0 LSC), Southwest Baptist (0-1, 0-0 MIAA)
Series: Texas A&M-Kingsville is 3-1 against Southwest Baptist
Location: Canale Arena
Time of Match: 12:30 p.m.
TEAM LEADERS
Texas A&M-Kingsville
Kills: Krystal Faison, 14
Blocks: Haley Hutchinson, 5
Assists: Casey Klobedans, 42
Aces: Lexi Wick, 4
Digs: Two players tied with 19 digs each
Southwest Baptist
Kills: Dana Neal, 12
Blocks: Kalyn Sotomayor, 2
Assists: Serena Mar, 15
Aces: Kalyn Sotomayor, 4
Digs: Bailey Baumann, 14
HOW IT HAPPENED
Set 1
Jitters played a role in the first set of the season as Southwest Baptist came out strong and took an early 11-5 lead over Texas A&M-Kingsville. However, the Hogs settled down and made a comeback behind Faison's seven first set kills. Two SBU errors along with a kill by Wick forced the Bearcats to call a timeout with a 20-19 lead. After trading points to tie the set at 23, two consecutive attack errors by the Javelinas gave the opening set to Southwest Baptist 25-23. SBU won the hitting percentage battle .282-.195 although TAMUK had 16 kills to its 13.
Set 2
Bukowski set the tone early for the Javs with two kills to help gain an early 3-1 lead. The team began to click after back-to-back kills by Brabham and Hutchinson as well as two attacking errors by the Bearcats to take an 8-6 lead. After SBU went on a four-point run, TAMUK returned the favor with a five-point run of its own to regain the lead 13-10 as the Bearcats took a timeout. The Hogs continued to put pressure on Southwest Baptist as they expanded their lead to 21-14, the largest of the set. In an attempt to recuperate by using another timeout, SBU came back on the floor and gave up four consecutive errors as TAMUK tied the match at 1-1 with the 25-14 set two victory.
Set 3
The momentum rolled over for the Javelinas as they began No. 3 with five unanswered points and broke out to an 11-3 lead. Four more errors followed SBU out of the timeout and an ace by Klobedans propelled Kingsville to a 13-point lead. The Bearcats tried to climb back into the set with four straight points but the Javelinas took a 2-1 lead with a 25-13 win in the third. Texas A&M-Kingsville never trailed in the third set.
Set 4
The early success continued with a 10-4 lead out of the break, capped off by back-to-back service aces by Faison. SBU made another attempt at a comeback later in the set but continued to be plagued by its errors and the Javs took advantage, taking a six-point lead. Moments later, Faison put the nail in the coffin with her 14th kill of the match that lifted Kingsville over Southwest Baptist 25-17 in set four as the Hogs opened the season with a 3-1 win.
GAME INFORMATION
Sets: Texas A&M-Kingsville 3, Saint Josephs College 0
Records: Texas A&M-Kingsville (2-0, 0-0 LSC), Saint Joseph's College (0-2, 0-0 GLVC)
Series: Texas A&M-Kingsville is 1-0 against Saint Joseph's College
Location: Canale Arena
Time of Match: 5 p.m.
TEAM LEADERS
Texas A&M-Kingsville
Kills: Krystal Faison, 9
Blocks: Lexi Wick, 8
Assists: Casey Klobedans, 23
Aces: Two players with 2 aces each
Digs: Krystal Puente, 14
Saint Joseph's College
Kills: Julia Kruzan, 9
Blocks: Shawntel James, 2
Assists: Frances Weyrauch, 9
Aces: None
Digs: Jena Davis, 9
HOW IT HAPPENED
Set 1
Texas A&M-Kingsville opened the match to a 13-6 lead over Saint Joseph's. The lead increased to nine on consecutive kills by Faison, Brabham and Klobedans, along with a ball handling error by the Pumas. With the score at 19-10, the trio struck again to help the Hogs capture the easy set one win 25-12. Bukowski led the charge with four kills, while Hutchinson and Brabham had three kills each.
Set 2
The Javelinas completely dominated set No. 2 wire to wire taking an early 2-0 lead in the match. Scoring the set's first four points, they were able to end the second game on a 7-1 run en route to a 25-13 win.
Set 3
With their backs against the walls, Saint Joseph's traded points with the Javelinas and the set was knotted at 6-6. The Blue and Gold began to break away, ignited by an 8-3 run, highlighted by two kills from Faison. Wick's arm started a streak of five consecutive points for the Hogs and Kingsville clinched the victory with a 25-17 win.
The Blue and Gold will close out the Christian Brothers Invitational with two matches tomorrow, beginning with Barton College at 10:15 a.m. The invite comes to a close with a bout versus with Arkansas Tech at 2:45 p.m.
Barton will return 11 athletes from its 2015 roster that went 15-12 overall and 9-7 in the Conference Carolinas. The Bulldogs had a hitting percentage of .187 and aced their opponents 167 times. Defensively, they totaled 194.5 blocks and averaged 15.7 digs per set.
Stephanie Pingyin led BC with 331 kills although Alexandria Cullens led the team in hitting percentage and service aces with .341 and 97, respectively. Angelica Acevedo paced the way with 805 assists last season.
The Javelinas and the Bulldogs will meet for the first time in program history.
TAMUK will end the day with an intriguing match against the 2015 Great American Conference (GAC) Regular Season Champions, Arkansas Tech. ATU was 26-7 in 2015 and had an impressive conference record of 15-1. The Golden Suns led the conference in hitting percentage (.228), kills per set (13.97), assists per set (12.94) and aces per set (1.65).
2015 GAC Freshman of the Year Hunter Eshnaur returns after a lavish collegiate debut that featured a team high of 421 kills and 49 service aces as well as a conference high of 4.40 points per set. McCall Wilkins led all returners in blocks with 71 a season ago and led the team with a .251 hitting percentage wracking up 231 kills. Defensive specialist Madison Nagel will also return to the Golden Suns after leading the club with 564 digs and averaging 4.90 digs per set ranking fifth in the GAC.
Texas A&M-Kingsville and Arkansas Tech are tied 1-1 in the all-time series and will meet for the first time since 2005.
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.
Box Score Match 1: http://javelinaathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=wvball&id=2756
Box Score Match 2: http://javelinaathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=wvball&id=2757
Live Stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cbu/wvball
