Kingsville - A potent offensive attack from the visiting Hilltoppers gave the Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team its first home in-conference loss of the season, falling in four sets to St. Edward's.
The Hogs were unable to get their offense going consistently, hitting under .100 for the match as a team, and move to 12-4 overall and 4-2 in Lone Star Conference play. After a flat start led to a pair of 25-14 set wins for SEU, Kingsville fought back in the fourth, waking its offense up to the tune of 10 kills and a .226 hitting percentage, before the Hilltoppers took a hard-fought fourth set to clinch the win.
Senior rightside hitter/setter
Rylan Pollard led the team in kills with a match-high 14 on .265 while adding 12 digs, nine assists, four block assists and an ace. She joined sophomore middle blocker
Karrington Crawford, senior MB
Madelyn Wallace, and junior MB
Natalee Rush with three or more total blocks, helping TAMUK out-block their visitors, 9.0 to 5.0. It was that defense that fueled Kingsville's turnaround, which nearly ended in the team forcing a tiebreaking fifth set.
Sophomore libero Tayae Garcia got her first match start in the jersey since suffering a concussion early in the season, and posted a team high 14 digs to go along with six assists, an ace, and - believe it or not - a kill. Senior S
Elisa Carli added a team high 15 kills and nine assist.
The Javelinas will be back on the court tomorrow for a Centennial Day match against St. Mary's. As part of a Canned Food Drive, four cans will grant fans admission into the match.Â
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