DELAND, Fla. – An early, 5-0, defeat at the hands of the No. 16 Stetson Hatters didn't faze the Texas A&M-Kingsville beach volleyball team and they bounced back to knock off the Mercer Bears, 4-1, on Friday afternoon in Deland, Fla. on the first day of the Stetson Beach Blast.
"I'm proud of the team effort," said coach Tanya Allen. "It came down to the wire on three different courts and all three of the pairs fought for the victory."
With one win and one loss, the Javelinas stayed above .500 at 5-4.
TAMUK vs. Mercer
In the first two matches, both junior Haley Hutchinson (Georgetown, Texas) and senior Kyra Henderson (Carlsbad, Calif.) at No. 4 and freshman Shelby Tate (New Braunfels, Texas) and sophomore Maelee Sowa (Sealy, Texas) in the fifth bracket had early leads in the opening set. At one point, Hutchinson and Henderson went on a run of six straight points to jump in front, 11-6. They later stretched that lead to eight and continued to control the action while winning the set 21-12. After dropping the second, the match headed to a deciding third set, where TAMUK's tandem took a quick 3-2 lead. After Mercer's Lela McIntosh and Marina Chavez tied the score at six, Hutchinson and Henderson went on a 5-1 run and held on to notch a 21-12, 9-21, 15-9 win.
Sowa and Tate were unable to hold on to their momentum, and lost 21-15, 21-16.
The second flight saw junior Madison Brabham (Kingwood, Texas) and freshman Macy Berg (San Antonio, Texas) race out to a 13-5 lead and they never looked back in the first frame, outscoring Jessica Johnson and Elli Gibson, 21-10. In the No. 3 spot, freshmen Tenley Housler (Bulverde, Texas) and Erin Umbel (Helotes, Texas) battled their way in front, 15-12 and fought off several challenges from Amber Gibson and Gracie Garanich to move ahead, 21-18. In the top flight, sophomore Gabby Atchley (Concord, Calif.) and freshman Whitney Walker (Bellingham, Wash.) withstood a set-point at 20-19 to win three straight, taking the first set 22-20. The Javelinas' No. 1's then tallied seven of the final nine points in the second stanza to collect Kingsville's second point.
After Mercer's teams took the second set at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, the tandems of Brabham and Berg and Housley and Umbel each erased deficits to clinch the upset. The final score in third set in both flights was 15-11.
"I thought we did a very good job of blocking and attacking," said Allen. "Our setting is improving, which is really helping to create opportunities to score."
TAMUK vs. Stetson
The Hatters quickly jumped in front by taking the fourth and fifth flights. At No. 4, Julie Varga and Lauren Durham downed Hutchinson and Henderson, 21-10, 21-12 and senior Madeline Sims (Aztec, N.M.) and Sowa would fare no better in a 21-13, 21-13 defeat to Quinci Barker and Rebecca Ingram at No. 5. The exhibition match was also won by the Hatters, with Katinka Krahn and Alexa Richardson besting Tate and sophomore Loren Washington (Round Rock, Texas), 21-8, 21-12.
Housler and Umbel had a difficult time in the first set against Rachel Noble and Samantha Harris, which finished with a final score of 21-11. They took an early lead in the second set, but Noble and Harris came back to pick up Stetson's third point, 21-14. Darby Dunn and Sammee Thomas took the No. 1 match over Atchley and Walker, 21-13, 21-11 and Brabham and Berg were handed a 21-16, 21-14 loss in the No. 2 flight.
The second day of the Stetson Beach Blast includes three matches for the Javelinas, beginning with a matchup against the University of Tampa at 7 a.m. CT. They'll follow that up by taking on Eckerd College at 1 p.m. and Florida Southern at 3 p.m. To stay up-to-date with everything related to Javelina beach volleyball, visit Javelinaathletics.com, follow @JavelinaBeach on Twitter and @JavelinaBeach on Instagram and like the /JavelinaSports Facebook page.
