Kingsville - Caught in a crammed race for a Lone Star Conference Tournament bid, the Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team is headed to Dallas Baptist for a 6:00 p.m. Tuesday showdown with the Patriots.

The Javelinas bring a 6-5 LSC record into the contest and sit in eighth place (top eight make the Conference Tournament). Despite some recent losses, DBU isn't far behind, holding a 5-5 record in conference play. Not only are the two teams neck-and-neck in the standings, but just two games currently separate the team in fourth and the team in 11th, making this match a crucial one for both squads.

The road trip will be the last one for a couple of weeks for the Javelinas, who will host three straight home games following Tuesday's match, including a 2:00 p.m. Saturday bout with Texas A&M-International. 

The Hogs will enter their matchup with DBU following a weekend where they got a much-needed win in four sets over Midwestern St., which broke a streak in which the team had lost four of its previous five matchups, and gave TAMUK an important tiebreaker over the Mustangs.

Kingsville holds an edge in the two program's all-time head-to-head matchups, leading 7-4. Though the Javelinas have won two of the last three matchups, neither team was able to defend its home court in the squads' last two matchups, with DBU taking down TAMUK in three sets in Kingsville last year, while the Hogs grabbed a four-set win over the Patriots two years ago in Dallas.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Scouting the Competition: The Dallas Baptist Patriots

Though they had a strong start to Conference play, the Patriots have lost three matches in a row, all to LSC opponents. The two most recent of those losses came at home, with Tuesday's contest marking the final of three straight home matches for DBU.

Junior outside hitter Karly Wells has taken the conference by storm this season, stepping into a massive offensive role for Dallas Baptist. She averages an astounding 4.80 kills per set, which not only leads the LSC but is the fifth-best mark in the nation. She does that while swinging at a .232 attack percentage, averaging .32 aces per set (24th in the LSC), and averaging the most points per set in the conference (5.42) by a healthy margin.

The Patriots have stars in other roles as well, with freshman OH Aizlyn Dewberry averaging the seventh-most blocks per set in the LSC while another freshman OH, Lauren Witte, averages the seventh-most service aces and the 21st-most kills in the conference.

DBU is 5-3 at home this season, with its last win in Dallas coming back on October 11th against Sul Ross St..

Javelina Quick Hitters:

• Earlier this season, the Javelinas reached the best start, record wise, in the history of the program. Since 1988, no TAMUK volleyball team had ever before held a 12-3 record through 15 matches
• Kingsville started Conference play with four straight wins, including a sweep of the Texas Woman's Pioneers in Denton, and a 3-2 upset of No.10 West Texas A&M in Kingsville - the first top-10 win for TAMUK since 2019. The Hogs then lost four of their next five matches before splitting last weekend's Homecoming weekend contests, and hold a 6-5 conference record, sitting in eighth place in the LSC standings
• Kingsville's high-powered offense is, statistically, one of the most potent offenses in the conference - it averages the sixth-highest team hitting percentage, the fourth-most assists, and the third-most assists
• The squad's defense has made great strides as the season has gone on as well, as it now averages the fewest opponent assists, and the fewest opponent kills, and second fewest opponent digs in the LSC
• Senior RS/S Rylan Pollard has stuffed the stat sheet in every possible way early in the year, bringing averages of 3.05 kills/s (15th in LSC), 4.85 assists/s, and 2.26 digs/s , as well as a .253 hitting percentage (23rd in LSC) into the weekend. She has already posted seven triple doubles this season, by far the most in the nation, including a 17k-28a-12d match with two service aces and three total blocks, as well as a match with 11k-27a-25d, and two aces.
• Pollard has won the LSC's weekly honor as both a Setter and an overall offensive player, becoming just the second player in the history of the conference to accomplish such a feat
• Junior MB Natalee Rush has been absolutely stellar in her third season with the Hogs, stepping into a large offensive roll and averaging a .471 attack percentage, the best in the conference and the second-best in the country
• Senior RS Kendall Harrington has been the epitome of efficiency early in the year, averaging 2.66 kills/s (24th in LSC) while averaging a ridiculous .302 attack percentage (9th in LSC). She has already twice dropped single-match career highs in kills, with 16 in a five-set win over Harding and 18 in a five-set win over Southern Arkansas
• Harrington won her first ever LSC weekly honors earlier this season, bringing home the Offensive Player of the Week award for a weekend where she averaged 3.47 kills/s while swinging at .400, adding in eight digs and four total blocks
• Senior setter Elisa Carli, who led the LSC in service aces last season, is off to a hot start behind the service line again this year, her 32 total aces are tied for the third most in the LSC - her 5.44 assists/s are also the 13th-most in the conference
• Carli has cemented herself in the Javelina Program record books in her final season wearing the blue and gold, moving into third on the all-time career aces list, and seventh on the all-time career assists list
• Defensively, junior DS/L Monique Gonzalez leads the team with 3.47 digs per set (15th in LSC), with sophomore DS/L Tayae Garcia not far behind, averaging 2.67 d/s