KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's volleyball team spent their most recent weekend of volleyball at home, regaining their footing with consecutive defeats of Texas Woman's and DBU, but what's up next is the busiest week that remains on TAMUK's regular season schedule, as they'll visit three different opponents at three different stops, including last year's Lone Star Conference Tournament runner-up.
The schedule for the week begins on Wednesday, when the Javelinas will be in Salt Lake City, Utah for a 5 p.m. matchup with the Westminster Griffins at the Behnken Field House. Next, TAMUK will travel to Tyler, Texas and visit the Louise Herrington Patriot Center to take on the No. 18 UT Tyler Patriots at 6 p.m. on Friday. The Javs close out the week on Saturday, when they're scheduled for a 1 p.m. showdown against the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions at 1 p.m. at the Field House in Commerce, Texas.
TAMUK's victories over TWU and DBU boosted their overall record to 10-2 and among the players who keyed those wins were junior libero Nicole Murff (San Antonio, Texas) and junior setter Emily Witt (Rose Hill, Kan.).
Murff continues to rack up digs at a ridiculous rate, outpacing the rest of the LSC in digs per set by a full point and her mark of 5.98 in that statistic is good enough for ninth in the Division II. If Murff keeps up her current pace, she would have a new program record, as the current Javelina best for digs per set in a season is 5.79, set by Kim Martinez in 1999. Martinez is also the program's all-time leader in career digs with 2,009. Murff's career total in that stat stands as 1,689, putting her 320 scoops away from Martinez's total.
Witt averaged 10.57 assists per set in her team's last two victories and those performances helped her get to third in the conference in assist rate for the year. The 45 helpers she dished out on Saturday against DBU were a season-high and she also contributed to the Javelina defense by matching her career-high with five rejections.
When the Javelinas cross paths with the Patriots and the Lions, it will provide coach Tanya Allen with the opportunity to reach another milestone in her career at TAMUK. Allen is already the program's all-time wins leader and the only coach to ever take the Javs to the NCAA Tournament, but with one more LSC victory, she'll become the first Javelina coach to ever reach 100 conference wins. Over the last five years, Allen's squad has gone 57-33 in LSC matches and that success has also brought her to within 10 wins of becoming the first coach in school history to reach 200 victories at TAMUK.
The task of finding wins in Tyler and Commerce will not be easy, as both clubs own winning records in the LSC, including a perfect 8-0 mark put together by the Patriots. UTT coach Lyndsay Mashe has assembled a team that's posted the best hitting percentage in the LSC at .256 and also leads the league in kills per set at 15.25. The Patriots have been held to a kill rate under .200 just once and they haven't needed a fifth set in any of their 12 victories in the fall.
For coach Craig Case and his Lions, their start to the season was almost the complete opposite of UTT's, as they dropped six of their first seven matches, but A&M-C has rebounded with five wins in their last six tries, including victories on Friday and Saturday over Midwestern State and Cameron, respectively. One of the stars during those two triumphs was junior setter Celeste Vela, who recorded a combined total of 69 assists and remains atop the conference leaderboard in assists per set with an even 10.00.
Links to live video and stats to keep up with all the action while the Javelinas are on the road can be found on Javelinaathletics.com, where recaps will also be published following the conclusion of each match. Stay up-to-date with everything related to Javelina volleyball all season long by following @Javelina_VB and @JavelinaSports on Twitter, @JavelinaVB and @JavelinaSports on Instagram, liking TAMUK Volleyball on Facebook, subscribing to the Javelina Athletics YouTube Channel and visiting Javelinaathletics.com.
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