Kingsville - After beginning its Lone Star Conference schedule a perfect 3-0, the Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team hits the road for a pair of conference contests against Sul Ross State (Thursday, 6:00 p.m.) and Western New Mexico (Saturday, 1:00 p.m.).
The Hogs are red-hot, bringing an LSC-best 11-2 overall record into their first true road trip of the conference season. That record is tied for the second-best start through 13 matches in the program's history.
The team's three-match win streak has been keyed, in large part, by its seniors and upperclassmen, who have been playing stellar volleyball early in the conference season, senior rightside hitter/setter
Rylan Pollard chief among them. Pollard leads the nation (D2) in triple doubles with five, and, after winning the LSC's Offensive Player of the Week award for her play in the Javelinas' three matches last week, became the first Javelina ever to win the LSC's setter and offensive weekly honors in the same season.
She leads the team in kills with 3.20 per set, while adding 4.86 assists/s and 2.22 digs/s as well. Not far behind her is fellow RS
Kendall Harrington with 2.94 kills/s on a blazing .368. The team's primary setter is senior
Elisa Carli, whose 5.41 assists/s and 24 total service aces each pace the team.
Scouting the Opposition: The Sul Ross State Lobos
After winning the first two matches of its season, taking down both Western and Eastern New Mexico in non-conference play, SRS has lost six straight matches, bringing an overall record of 2-6 into its home-opening weekend.
Freshman middle blocker Samantha Senak leads the team in kills with 1.89/s, pacing a group of five Lobos who average between 1.00 and 2.00 kills/s. Defensively, junior DS/L BreAnna Quarles paces the squad with 3.70 digs/s, and has posted double-digit digs in every match except one so far this season.
The Lobos' only contest against the Javelinas came last year, with TAMUK sweeping SRS in straight sets to hold a 1-0 advantage in the programs' all-time head-to-head record.
Scouting the Opposition: The Western New Mexico Mustangs
Though, like the Lobos, the Mustangs have yet to grab their first conference win this season, they have collected five wins during non-conference play, including two over LSC opponents - three-set sweeps of both Eastern New Mexico and SRS.
The team brings a three-match losing streak into the weekend, which will begin with a Thursday-night contest against Texas A&M - International in its first home conference matchup of the year. The most recent of its three losses, however, came in five hard-fought sets against Lubbock Christian in Lubbock on Saturday.
Freshman middle hitter/opposite Daphne Posthumus leads the offense in both kills (2.43) and hitting percentage (.321), as well as boasting the second most blocks/s (1.24) in the LSC. She fuels the 15th-best block in all of division II (2.57/s), as well as second lowest opponent attack percentage (.145) in the conference. The Mustangs also hold opponents to the lowest block numbers in the conference by a healthy margin (1.11/s).
WNM has lost 10 straight matches against the Javelinas and will be looking for its first win over TAMUK since 2008.
