KINGSVILLE, Texas – Both junior Sarah Miller (Long Beach, Calif.) and senior Haley Hutchinson (Kingwood, Texas) posted hit percentages of .500 or better and the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's volleyball team breezed past the St. Mary's Rattlers in straight sets, 25-23, 25-13, 25-21, on Tuesday night at the Steinke Physical Education Center in Kingsville, Texas.
"I think overall, we did a good job as a collective unit," said coach Tanya Allen. "Our middles were very successful offensively today and I thought Sarah took some nice swings as well."
Miller's .500 spike rate is a new career high for the California native and the 14 kills and 14 digs she put up represented her fifth double-double of the season. For Hutchinson, this makes three times in 2018 she's gone errorless. That combined with seven kills on 13 attempts put her percentage at .538.
Senior Madison Brabham (Kingwood, Texas) tallied 21 assists, the fourth time in her last six matches she reached the 20-assist plateau. Freshman Nicole Murff's (San Antonio, Texas) 18 scoops were a game-high and junior Talleyshia Morris (Tulsa, Okla.) set the pace in blocks with six, a new career-high.
In the opening set, a string of six points in eight chances gave St. Mary's a 9-5 edge but three straight scores for the Javelinas brought them within one at 10-9. Another run of three-in-a-row soon after gave TAMUK a slim, 14-13 advantage. That lead grew to three, but the Rattlers came back to tie before moving in front 22-21. Three straight to the Blue and Gold gave them a set point and they went up 1-0 thanks to an attack error by Channing Hankins.
The second stanza was a complete departure from the back-and-forth action of the first, as the Javelinas took control early and refused to let their opponents off the mat. The Rattlers never held a lead in the frame and with the score tied at 3-3, an 11-3 run put the Javs in control. The separation grew to double-digits on a smash from Brabham, who also provided the assist for Miller on the point that staked the Javelinas to a two-set advantage. St. Mary's tallied six kills and six attack errors on 26 attacks for a .000 hit percentage in the second game.
Junior Melanie Casteel (Dallas, Texas) contributed four kills as TAMUK grabbed six consecutive points to jump ahead 8-2 in the third. A 11-4 spurt for St. Mary's allowed them to slide in front by a point, only to see the next six rallies go to the Blue and Gold, making the score 18-13. The Rattlers were never able to get closer than three after that and Morris brought the night to an end with her fifth kill.
The Rattlers became the fourth TAMUK opponent to be held to a kill rate under .100, as they could only pick up 30 kills on 118 attacks with 20 errors for a mark of .085. Only one St. Mary's player reached double figures in kills: Alissa Tolbert with 10. Bree Perry totaled 20 assists to go with 11 digs.
A string of four consecutive road matches for the Javelinas starts on Thursday, when they'll face St. Edward's in Austin at 4 p.m. 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.
