STEPHENVILLE, Texas – The 14th triple-double of the season for senior Madison Brabham (Kingwood, Texas) and a stifling Javelina defense that racked up 14 total blocks, one off their season-high, spurred the sixth-seeded Texas A&M-Kingsville women's volleyball team to an upset of the third-seeded Angelo State Rambelles, 15-25, 25-15, 27-25, 23-25, 15-11, in the first round of the Lone Star Conference Tournament on Thursday afternoon in Stephenville, Texas at Wisdom Gym.
Brabham's 21-kill, 18-assist, 12-dig performances adds one more number to a triple-double total that already leads the nation. Her hitting percentage of .429 was also far and away the match's best.
Leading the charge on defense was junior Talleyshia Morris (Tulsa, Okla.), who ran up nine total blocks, the most by a Javelina since senior Haley Hutchinson (Georgetown, Texas) had 10 on Sept. 7th. Freshman Kailey Estrada (San Antonio, Texas) added five rejections to the cause. Hutchinson's two blocks brought her career total to 483, even with Ada Ihemelu for the program's all-time record in that category.
Junior Melanie Casteel (Dallas, Texas) contributed to TAMUK's attack with 10 kills and freshman Emily North (Red Oak, Texas) passed out 26 assists to lead the Blue and Gold.
Rookie Nicole Murff (San Antonio, Texas) led all players with 19 digs and Hutchinson contributed 11 while swinging at a .258 percentage to go with nine kills.
The Rambelles quickly built a lead by taking five of the match's first six rallies before the Javelinas battled back to within two. With the score at 10-7, ASU used a 7-0 run to establish a double-digit edge that was too much for TAMUK to overcome. A bad set by the Javelinas provided Angelo State with its 25th point.
The fast start in the second set belonged to the Javelinas, who notched nine of the first 13 points. Angelo cut the deficit to two and still trailed by three at 13-10 before the Javs regained the momentum. An 8-1 burst pushed ASU's deficit to 10 and it grew as large as 11 before Brabham concluded the game with a kill and tied the match. TAMUK hit .318 during the second game.
Four blasts by Brabham contributed to an early 8-4 edge for TAMUK and the Javelinas continued to lead throughout the set until they went up 20-15. At that point, Angelo State came to life, winning five straight rallies to draw level, only to see the Javelinas put up three-in-a-row. The Javs reached set point at 24-21 and persevered when their opponents tied the score twice. At 25-25, TAMUK utilized another smash from Brabham and an attack error by Baleigh Allen to go ahead 2-1.
Angelo State took a slim early lead in the fourth game before utilizing a block by Sophia Berg to touch off a stretch where they took five of six to go up 11-6. The lead for the Rambells got as large as six at 20-14 before the Javelinas rallied with four straight, moving within two. After a score by ASU, the Javs notched four of the next five to tie the score at 22, but the Rambelles were able to regain their footing, grabbing three of four, including a kill by Audrey Fragniere to seal the set.
The Javelinas never trailed in the fifth set and slowly built a lead over their foe. A run of four straight scores including an ace by Murff put TAMUK ahead, 7-3 and that lead later stretched to five at 9-4 and 11-6. ASU was twice able to close within two, the last instance at 13-11. At that point, both Javelina seniors came up clutch. A blast by Hutchinson was followed by rocket from Brabham that was too hot for Angelo State to handle and Javelinas were able to survive and advance.
The .214 attack percentage crafted by the Blue and Gold easily bested the mark of .145 put up by the Rambelles, their lowest kill rate in almost two months. The Javelinas also forced Angelo State into 34 attack errors, their highest total of the season.
This victory snapped an eight-match win streak over TAMUK for ASU, as the Javelinas downed Angelo State for the first time since 2015.
The Javelinas move on to Friday's semifinal, which will take place at 5 p.m. against the winner of the A&M-Commerce-UT Permian Basin matchup. Fans can keep up with Javelina volleyball all year long by following @JavelinaVB on Twitter and @javelinasports and @JavelinaVB on Instagram, liking Javelina Volleyball on Facebook and visiting Javelinasports.com.
