KINGSVILLE, Texas – Less than two weeks remain on the 2019 regular season schedule for the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's volleyball team and the top of their division still remains within reach as the Javelinas prepare to play the final two road matches on their schedule against a pair of divisional opponents.
On Friday night, the Blue and Gold will be in Dallas, Texas to take on the Dallas Baptist Patriots at 6 p.m. at the Burg Center. At 2 p.m. on Saturday, the Javelinas will be inside Wisdom Gym for a battle with the Tarleton Texans in Stephenville, Texas.
On both days, the Javelinas will be trying for a season sweep of their opponent after knocking off the Texans and Patriots on consecutive days in September. Against 10th-ranked Tarleton, the Javs came back from a 2-0 deficit to earn win over a ranked team for the first time since 2015. On Friday, they'll be attempting to secure a sweep of TSU for the first time since 2005. TAMUK also had to come from behind against DBU, securing the last two sets for another triumph, their fifth in six tries at the expense of the Patriots.
Those two wins have helped the Javelinas stay within striking distance of the first-place team in their division, St. Edward's. With a 7-1 record, SEU owns a one-game lead over TAMUK, which stands at 5-1 in divisional play, 7-7 in the Lone Star Conference and 16-12 overall. The Texans enter the penultimate weekend of the regular season trailing the Javs by one game at 5-3 with DBU in fourth place at 3-5.
The first order of business for coach Tanya Allen and her student-athletes will be to stop the team's current five-game losing streak, their longest skid since 2013. Two players who figure to play a large role in getting the Blue and Gold back on track are senior Talleyshia Morris (Tulsa, Okla.) and junior Meghan Merlino (Sacaramento, Calif.). Merlino nearly snagged consecutive double-doubles in TAMUK's last two matches and she set a season-high in digs her last time out, tallying 18 to with 11 kills against Eastern New Mexico. On Friday against West Texas, Merlino registered 10 smashes with a .364 hitting percentage.
Morris had one of her best days as a Javelina against the Greyhounds, hitting double figures in kills and blocks in the same match for the second time in 2019. Her 21 finishers and 11 rejections both matched career-highs and she hit .436 for the match. For the season, Morris has 114 total blocks, more than anyone else in the LSC.
The Javelinas will also be relying on freshman Jordan Schenkel (San Antonio, Texas), who took over the role of libero for the first time in the matchup with ENMU. After leading the Javelinas in digs versus WT, she reset her season-high by scooping 27 attacks from the Greyhounds. In TAMUK's previous two matches against DBU and TSU, they recorded two of their four highest dig totals of the season and will be looking to repeat those defensive performances on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, Schenkel and her teammates be tasked with stopping a DBU team that is at the top of the LSC in digs per set with a mark of 18.21, good for 27th in the nation. The Patriots are represented in the conference's top 10 in that stat by senior Keely Hardin, who is seventh in the league with 374 scoops. In DBU's first meeting of the season with TAMUK, Hardin set a season-high with 36 digs, eight more than her next highest total in 2019.
Tarleton enters the weekend with a narrow edge on the Javelinas for the league lead in blocks per set at 2.30 and both teams are inside the nation's top 30 in that category. Their most formidable presence in the middle is senior Sofia Tonga, who is tied for the LSC's best mark in blocks per set at 1.18, which also places her in a tie for 28th in Division II. Her most impressive performance of the year came in an October defeat against DBU, when she was credited with a program-record 17 total blocks.
Links to live coverage of each match can be found on Javelinaathletics.com and be sure to check back after the game for a rundown of everything that happened in each game. You can keep up with Javelina volleyball all season long by following @JavelinaVB and @JavelinaSports on Twitter and Instagram, visiting TAMUK Volleyball on Facebook, subscribing to the Javelina Athletics YouTube Channel and visiting Javelinaathletics.com. Watch your Javelinas live today on the Javelina Sports Network sponsored by Mendoza's Pharmacy.
