KINGSVILLE, Texas – A pair of sweeps punctuated the final day of the Kingsville Beach Bash, which doubled as Senior Day for the Texas A&M-Kingsville beach volleyball team, who raced past the Park University Pirates and the Abilene Christian Wildcats by identical scores of 5-0 on Saturday afternoon at the Javelina Beach Courts in Kingsville, Texas.
With these two wins, TAMUK's record jumps above .500 to 13-12 and they finish the beach bash with a 3-1 mark.
"[Going] 3-1 is a good weekend," said coach Tanya Allen, "and our loss was to a very, very good team. I thought we competed hard with Arizona State and I saw a lot of positive things this weekend that we can take into nationals."
TAMUK vs. Park
For the second consecutive day, the Javelinas swept Park without dropping a single set and senior Haley Hutchinson (Georgetown, Texas) and sophomore Macy Berg (San Antonio, Texas) got the day started with a tidy 21-6, 21-8 triumph in the No. 3 match. They scored nine of the last 11 points in the first stanza and finished the second set in similar fashion.
TAMUK's second senior, Madison Brabham (Kingwood, Texas), playing with freshman Kylexus Block (San Antonio) in the second flight, provided her team with a 2-0 lead. With the score at 9-8 in the first frame, Brabham and Block went on an 11-1 run to take the set 21-9 en route to a 21-9, 21-13 final.
In the fifth spot were freshmen Christina Gragasin (Celina, Texas) and Nicole Murff (San Antonio), who controlled their match the entire way. In each set, they gradually built insurmountable leads and wound up winning, 21-8, 21-14. TAMUK's No. 1's used a 7-0 run to help secure the first set and an 8-3 burst to gain a 15-6 lead in set two. The pairing of sophomores Whitney Walker (Bellingham, Wash.) and Tenley Housler (Bulverde, Texas) took the top flight 21-12, 21-9.
The final point was earned by juniors Melanie Casteel (Dallas, Texas) and TaylorLynn Noga (Anchorage, Alaska), who fought their way into the lead and collected a close first set, 21-17. The second frame also proved to be a tight affair, but Casteel and Noga battled back to win three straight points after trailing 20-19 and secured a 21-17, 22-20 final. The sixth flight went to the Javelina pairing of sophomore Shelby Tate (New Braunfels, Texas) and freshman Lauren Kadilis (Spring Branch, Texas), 21-15, 21-15.
TAMUK vs. ACU
Against Abilene Christian, the Javelinas gained their first point in the No. 2 match due to a forfeit. Hutchinson and Berg built on that lead by pushing past Amy Weiss and Kennedy Shelstead, 22-20, 21-10. These victories for Hutchinson and Brabham put their career win totals at 49 and 47, respectively, the two highest win counts in program history.
Housler and Walker breezed past Kate Mueller and Eighmy Dobbins in the first flight, 21-10, 21-15 and Murff and Gragasin were victorious in the fifth flight, 21-5, 22-20. The fourth match went to a third set, with Casteel and Noga bouncing back after dropping the opening frame to take the second, 21-9. They would finish off the comeback in 15-12 fashion with a 17-21, 21-9, 15-12 final.
The next time the Javelinas will be on the court will be at the American Volleyball Coaches Association National Tournament, which will begin on Friday in Tavares, Fla. To stay current with everything related to Javelina Beach Volleyball all season long, follow @JavelinaBeach on Twitter and @javelinasports and @JavelinaBeach on Instagram, like Javelina Sports on Facebook and visit Javelinasports.com.
