KINGSVILLE, Texas – On a night when senior Haley Hutchinson became the first Javelina to ever reach 500 sets played in a career, the Georgetown, Texas native also set a new career-high with 19 kills while helping lead the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's volleyball team past the MSU Texas Mustangs, 25-18, 21-25, 25-21, 23-25, 15-13 on Friday night at the Steinke Physical Education Center in Kingsville, Texas.
Hutchinson's 19 smashes, which led all participants, topped her previous career-best of 17, a mark she set earlier this season against Western New Mexico, but she wasn't the only Javelina reaching new heights. Freshman Mia Soto (San Antonio, Texas) piled up 10 kills, the highest total of her rookie season and her .250 hitting percentage was the best on the squad.
Senior Madison Brabham (Kingwood, Texas) had what has become a typical night, putting up another triple-double with 12 kills, 26 assists, a team-high, and 17 digs. She continues to pad her national lead in that category with 12. Entering the weekend, no other player in the country had more than nine.
Leading the way in digs was freshman Nicole Murff (San Antonio, Texas) with 25. On this night, Murff passed Ali Insell and Tara Grier on TAMUK's all-time list for digs in a season. She now has 536 and is in sixth place on that list.
Freshman Emily North (Red Oak, Texas) finished the night just one scoop shy of her 10th double-double, as she picked up 25 assists and nine digs. Fellow rookie Alexa Ruiz (Schertz, Texas) pitched in with 15 scoops. Junior Talleyshia Morris (Tulsa, Okla.) led the team with six total blocks and has tallied at least five rejections in five of her last seven matches.
Neither team could find much breathing room to start the opening set before, with the score tied at 11, the Javelinas stole the momentum. TAMUK took six of the next seven rallies, with Brabham sending in a pair of kills. MSU could only get within three after that and eight of the set's final 12 rallies went the way of the Javelinas with Morris capping the frame with an ace. TAMUK nearly doubled the kill total of their opponents in the set, registering 15 while holding the Mustangs to eight.
Midwestern State never trailed in the second set, racing to a 6-2 lead before the Javs bounced back to tie the score at eight. With the score again even at 11, the Mustangs grabbed five of the next six and even though the home team moved within one twice, MSU was able to hold them off and a TAMUK ball handling error provided the 25th point the visitors needed to pull even in sets. The Mustangs collected six blocks in the game and kept the Javelina hitting percentage to .056.
An early 7-2 run in the third game that included two smashes from Morris pushed TAMUK in front, 10-5. That advantage held until late in the stanza, when Midwestern State went on their own 7-2 burst and cut their deficit to one before the Javelinas regained control. Notching four of the next five points, the Javs reached set point and freshman Kailey Estrada (San Antonio, Texas) clinched a 2-1 lead with her fifth kill of the evening. Estrada's rocket capped a set that saw the Javelina offense post a scorching .417 kill rate, as they committed only two errors compared to 17 kills on 36 attacks.
In the fourth game, it was MSU taking a 7-2 lead that the Javelinas slowly chipped away at before using four straight scores to draw level at 18. The teams then traded runs, MSU Texas jumping ahead 22-18, before TAMUK did them one better, taking a 23-22 edge on another kill by Hutchinson, but the Mustangs would have the last word. By stealing three straight rallies, the last one finished off by a Raven Pressley kill, the Mustangs sent the match to a fifth set.
A stretch of four straight points allowed MSU to move ahead 5-2 and they led by three again at 8-5, but the Javs clawed back to take an 11-10 lead on a kill by North. After the Mustangs got even, TAMUK grabbed three of four to get to match point. The visitors staved off the first match point, but Brabham took advantage of the second one with a kill that evaded the MSU defense and iced her team's 17th victory.
The final match of the 2018 regular season for Javelina volleyball will take place at the SPEC on Saturday. At 2 p.m., the Javelinas will host Cameron. The match will be preceded by the Senior Day ceremonies for seniors Madison Brabham and Haley Hutchinson. Fans can keep up with Javelina volleyball throughout the season by following @JavelinaVB on Twitter and @javelinasports and @JavelinaVB on Instagram, liking Javelina Volleyball on Facebook and visiting Javelinasports.com.
