COMMERCE, Texas (Volleyball) – Texas A&M University-Kingsville (10-2, 2-0 LSC) begins a busy weekend at Texas A&M University-Commerce (6-6, 1-2 LSC) Friday, Sept. 23 at 5 p.m. in the Field House before taking on Texas Woman's University (3-8, 0-3 LSC) at 1 p.m. at the Kitty Magee Arena and Dallas Baptist University (3-9, 1-1 Heartland) Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Burg Center.
Live stats will be accessible on JavelinaAthletics.com and fans will have the opportunity to hear the voice of the Javelinas, Kevin Piel, call the action on KTAI 91.1 FM (Kingsville) on Friday evening.
Despite falling in its last match, a non-conference affair at St. Mary's University, Texas A&M-Kingsville has been impressive in 2016 and currently sit in second place in the loaded LSC standings after beginning conference play with back-to-back straight set victories over Western New Mexico University and Eastern New Mexico University, respectively. The Hogs sit in the top five in Division II with 93 total service aces and rank in the top 20 with 99.5 total blocks. They hold the second best hitting percentage in the conference at .241 and their 579 kills are third most.
The Javelinas have a trio with 100-plus kills starting with Krystal Faison at 144, Lexi Wick with 108 kills and Ashley Bukowski rounding out with 105 kills. They are also the top three players in service aces with Wick leading the way with 23, Faison close by at 22 and Bukowski with 16. Casey Klobedans navigates the offense with 453 assists and the junior has also gathered 38 kills, 17 blocks and 11 aces. Haley Hutchinson is a stout defensive leader with a team high 45 blocks to go with 81 kills, while libero Krystal Puente leads in digs at 170 total, averaging 3.86 per set.
A&M-Commerce sits at .500 overall this season and opened a five-match homestand by getting its first conference win against Texas Woman's 3-1 on Tuesday night. The Lions fell to both Tarleton State University and No. 8 Angelo State University to open conference play. As a team, they average 12.3 kills per set but opponents outhit them .158 to .142. Senior Taryn Driver leads the club offensively with 131 kills and fellow senior Ashley Mireles anchors the defense with 237 digs. Sydney Reyes is the presence in the middle with 55 total blocks and 72 kills and Gabriela Rosa leads the Lions with 13 aces.
TAMUC holds a 27-13 edge all-time against system rival TAMUK and are 11-5 on the Lion head. The Hogs however, have had their number as of late and are 4-2 against the Lions since 2013.
Texas Woman's will enter the weekend nursing a six-match losing streak, including three against No.8 Angelo State, Tarleton State and A&M-Commerce. The Pioneers hit .141 from the floor and opponents average a league best 14 kills per set. TWU is led by Anna McGee with 123 kills and adds 32 blocks and six aces. Sara Oxford follows with 104 kills and is the team leader in blocks with 36. Oxford has also collected eight aces in 2016. Mary Kate Hyde leads the way with 359 assists and nine aces to go along with 125 digs.
TAMUK is 7-36 all-time against TWU and 3-13 when playing them in Denton, Texas.
Dallas Baptist will return to the floor on Saturday after falling to conference rival St. Mary's in five sets a week ago. The Patriots rank third in the Heartland Conference with 522 kills and have a hitting percentage of .159 in 2016. They have accumulated 58 total blocks and average 17.3 digs per set. DBU has three players with at least 100 kills in Carly Hess (105), Sidnee Jo Fitzpatrick (104) and Madeline Dolberry (100). Fitzpatrick leads the way with 29 blocks and Dolberry follows with 22. Hannah Ballew paces the team with 178 digs and 12 aces,, while Strealy Sizelove ranks fifth in the conference in digs and digs per set with 372 and 8.45, respectively.
The Javs lead the all-time series against the Patriots 2-1 with all three matches being played on a neutral floor. TAMUK won in straight sets in the first meeting in 2002 and then in five sets in 2003. The last time the clubs met was in 2010.
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.
