KINGSVILLE, Texas – For the 19th time in program history and the eighth consecutive year, the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's volleyball team is preparing for postseason play and the Javelinas, who earned the sixth-seed in the Lone Star Conference Tournament, will start off by facing third-seeded Angelo State on Thursday afternoon at the Wisdom Gym in Stephenville, Texas at 12 p.m.
The Javelinas earned entrance in the LSC Tourney by compiling a record of 18-13 and going 10-10 in conference play. They finished the season by notching three straight wins, a streak that started with a road win over West Texas A&M before the Javs came home and finished off the regular season with victories over MSU Texas and Cameron.
Coach Tanya Allen and her team will be hoping to ride that momentum into a competition where TAMUK owns an overall record of 11-17. The squad's last victory in the LSC Tournament came in 2016, when they outlasted WT in a five-set fight. Madison Brabham (Kingwood, Texas) and Haley Hutchinson (Georgetown, Texas) were two of the team's main contributors in that victory. Hutchinson led all players with eight total blocks while Brabham contributed 13 kills.
Now as the team's two senior members, Brabham and Hutchinson have established themselves as two of the squad's most valuable and versatile players. Hutchinson's 263 kills are the most she's had in a season for the Javelinas and she reset her career-high for kills in a match in TAMUK's win over MSU, firing off 19 against the Mustangs. Defensively, her 102 total blocks are the most on roster and she's one of three Javelinas in the top 15 in the LSC in blocks per set, along with freshman Kailey Estrada (San Antonio, Texas) and junior Talleyshia Morris (Tulsa, Okla.).
Career-wise, Hutchinson will enter Thursday's match just two behind Ada Ihemelu on the program's total blocks list. Her total of 481 currently has her in second-place in the Javelina record book.
All Brabham has done during her final campaign in the Blue in Gold is lead the nation in triple-doubles with 13 and post a kill rate that leads the league. Her 423 kills are the 19th-most in Division II and she's 11 away from moving into fifth-place in Javelina history for most kills in a season. Brabham finished the regular season by recording a triple-double in seven of her final eight matches and she's also handed out at least 20 assists in four consecutive contests. Defensively, her 271 digs were the second-most on the roster and her 75 total blocks placed her fourth.
Freshman Nicole Murff (San Antonio, Texas) will be one of the Javelinas experiencing the conference tournament for the first time. She'll be looking to continue the level of play that allowed her to finish the regular season with 555 digs, a total that matches the mark set by Brett Zaccardo in 2014 for most digs in a season by a Javelina freshman and puts her tied for fourth in the school record book. Murff's current average of 4.96 digs per set is the best by a TAMUK student-athletes since Zaccardo's 4.98 average in 2015.
Angelo State (22-8, 15-5) is attempting to complete a three-match sweep of the Javelinas for the second time in three years, as they also knocked TAMUK out of the postseason during the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Coach Chuck Waddington saw his team earn the tournament's third seed thanks in large part to an excellent defense that has held opponents to the lowest hitting percentage in the LSC. When these two teams met for the first time in 2018, ASU held the Javelinas to a kill rate of .017 in a straight set win.
Offensivley, middle blocker Baleigh Allen and setter Meghan Parker have remained two of the key cogs in Waddington's attack throughout the season. Allen's hitting percentage of .356 finished behind only Shelley Chapron of A&M-Commerce on the conference leaderboard. She also pitched in on defense with 106 total blocks, most among Rambelles. Parker has lived up to her preseason billing as the LSC Setter of the Year, crafting the second-highest average of assists per set while also leading the league in aces with 50.
Links to live stats and video for Thursday's match will be available via Javelinaathletics.com and a recap will be published shortly after the final point. To keep up with everything related to Javelina volleyball all season long, follow @JavelinaVB on Twitter and @javelinasports on Instagram, like Javelina Volleyball on Facebook and visit Javelinasports.com.
