Kingsville - Texas A&M-Kingsville came up short in the fifth set against Texas Woman's University on Thursday at the Steinke Physical Education Center.
The Javelinas (7-3, 0-0 Lone Star Conference) could not close the match out after going up 2-1 against the Pioneers (5-3, 0-0 LSC) who eventually handed the Javelinas their first loss in four matches.
"We have to get better at defense as a whole, we let their attackers hit for really high percentages," said Head Coach
Tanya Allen-Gonzalez. "They have really good attackers, and we know that they are gonna get their kills, but we let them go off at the wrong times."
Defensive breakdowns are what would eventually seal the Javelinas fate, as the Pioneers would hit for .375% and .45% Â in sets four and five respectively. Set five would especially highlight this as Texas Woman's would score 12 kills on just 20 attacks.
Despite the loss, the Javelinas did have something to celebrate. Senior
Ayanna Jackson passed Texas A&M-Kingsville legend Madison Brabham on the all-time kills list for Javelina Volleyball. Jackson's 1193 career kills are now good for sixth all-time in the history of Javelina Volleyball.
At the start of the match, the Javelinas would find themselves down early thanks to five kills from the Pioneers. A
Rylan Pollard kill would bring the Javelinas within two, but the Pioneers would eventually pull away and go up 1-0 in the match.
Set two would be a different story for the Javelinas. This time, when the Pioneers went up early, the Javelinas would bring it all the way back to an even game. A 6-0 run led by Jackson would knot the set up at 12 apiece, and a 7-1 run led by Pollard would give the Javelinas set two.
Set three would be a tightly contested set between the two teams. Neither team could gain any ground on one-another until midway through, when the Javelinas would score a quick five straight points to go up three. That run would eventually make all the difference as the Javelinas took set three.
Unfortunately, that would be the last set the Javelinas would win. Set four was another tight set, this time however, it would be the Pioneers who used a late surge to eventually take the win. As the final set began, the Pioneers carried their momentum from the previous set to eventually win the match.
Kendall Harrington led the Javelinas with 13 kills, Jackson and Pollard both contributed 12 kills themselves.
Elisa Carli finished with her fourth 20-assist match of the year and
Isabel Rodriguez led the team with 19 digs.
The Javelinas face their second opponent of the LSC challenge on Saturday against UT-Tyler at 1:00 p.m. CT, with the game being streamed on Flosports.
