ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Sophomore Jackie Alanis (McAllen, Texas) pumped out 24 kills, the most by a Javelina in nearly three years, and the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's volleyball team outfought the Ouachita Baptist Tigers, 19-25, 25-19, 25-15, 23-25, 15-12 on Wednesday evening at Tiger Volleyball Court in Arkadelphia, Ark.
"Our defense was incredible," said coach Tanya Allen, "and we only had two blockers in the front row half of the time. Tammy [Jo Grohman] and Ayanna [Jackson] were blocking machines. It was a little sloppy at times, but they found a way to get it done. They worked hard through a very tough situation and came out with a win."
Alanis' 24 smashes were the most for TAMUK since Madison Brabham had 24 on Oct. 27th, 2018 and her stat line also included 10 digs for her second double-double of the year as well as four blocks. Topping the Javelina leaderboard in digs on this day was junior Nicole Murff (San Antonio, Texas) with 19, followed by senior Alexa Ruiz (Schertz, Texas) with 13 and sophomore Jordan Schenkel (San Antonio, Texas) with 12.
Grohman (San Antonio, Texas) and Jackson (San Antonio, Texas) led the way for Javelina defense that amassed 18 total blocks. Both players finished with nine rejections and combined for five solo blocks. Senior Kapri Pelle (Auburn, Calif.) added five denials and Alanis was credited with four.
Oauchita led almost the entire way in the first set, taking an early 10-5 lead, then, after the Javs closed to within one, winning three straight rallies to make the score 14-10. TAMUK could never erase that deficit, which later grew as large as seven and a ball handling error by the visitors closed out the game.
The second frame started out like it might look very similar to the first, with OBU jumping out to a 5-0 lead, but the Javelinas battled back, winning four consecutive points during one stretch to turn an 11-8 deficit into a 12-11 edge. After the home team regained the lead at 16-15, TAMUK rattled off seven straight scores, with Pelle contributing two kills and two block assists, and the Javs never looked back after that, locking up the 25th point on a Tiger attack error.
In the third, it was the Javs who grabbed the first substantial lead, using four straight points to make the score 7-3. The Tigers cut their deficit to one, but the visitors responded with a 9-1 run that included two Allison Stachowiak (Brownsville, Texas) smashes and made the score 18-9. That deficit was too much for OBU to overcome and the Javelinas officially made the score 2-1 in sets on a rocket from Jackson. TAMUK held the opposition to a -.056 hitting percentage in the third frame.
The Javs had a chance to end the match in the fourth set, erasing an early 9-3 hole and eventually taking a 22-21 lead, but Ouachita persevered to force a decisive fifth game. In that last set, the Blue and Gold never trailed, eking out an early 5-2 advantage and holding it until OBU drew level at 11. The next three points belonged to the visitors, however, coming on two errors sandwiched around a Schenkel ace. After one match point went by the boards, a perfectly placed attack by Alanis put the night's final point on the board.
When the Javelinas take the court next, they'll be Wichita Falls, Texas on Friday for the first day of the Midwestern State Hampton Inn-vitational. First, they'll clash with Eastern New Mexico at 1:30 a.m., then they'll take on Midwestern State at 4:30 p.m. Keep up with 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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