Kingsville - The Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team is back in town for a pair of Lone Star Conference matches in the SPEC starting with a Country Night matchup against St. Edward's at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and ending with a 2:00 p.m. showdown with St. Mary's on Saturday.

The first 100 fans wearing cowboy fans wearing cowboy boots will receive a $23 Washworks Express Gift Certificate and a gift card for a free Wendy's Medium Combo Meal. Additionally, between the second and third sets, two fans with the best boots and two fans with the best country outfits will receive prizes provided by King Ranch.

The Javelinas enter the weekend with their best start to a season in program history, becoming the first Javelina volleyball team ever to reach a 12-3 record through the first 15 matches of a season. Their 4-1 start to LSC play is also the best since the spring of 2021, when the team, playing a shortened season, went undefeated during the regular season.

Kingsville hopes to continue a four-match win streak against the Hilltoppers, with SEU's last win in the series coming back in 2021. Though St. Mary's has won the teams' two previous meetings taking down the Javelinas in three and four sets respectively, TAMUK took nine straight wins prior to that stretching back to 2019.

Scouting the Competition: St. Edward's Hilltoppers

The Hilltoppers have opened their season 3-7 and are yet to grab a win in conference play, bringing an 0-5 record into the weekend. They missed out on four other games it could have played in Arkansas at the non-conference Reddie-Tiger Invitational, which Head coach Jeremy Garcia pulled out of, citing injuries and health concerns. Since then, the Hilltoppers won both of its matches at LSC Challenge, in which it hosted UT-Dallas and Cameron, beating them in four and three sets respectively. Neither of those matches, however, counted toward their conference record, and they have lost their five matches in a row since, including three straight home losses

St. Ed's has proven itself an excellent team behind the service line, and rank second in the conference in service aces behind only the Javelinas, Junior OH Kelli Fording leads the team in that department, averaging the second most service aces of any individual in the conference with 0.69 per set.

Sophomore libero Giselle Ojeda has been fantastic in her second year with the Hilltoppers, averaging the second most digs per set in the conference, with 4.89. Another talented youngster on the SEU roster, sophomore setter Althea Morris, averages the third most assists in the conference, conducting the Rattler offense to the tune of an LSC-third-best 8.89 assists per set.

Scouting the Competition: St. Mary's Rattlers

After finishing with a 17-11 overall record and making the conference tournament last season, the Rattlers have started 6-9 this season, struggling to open their year against tough non-conference competition before finding their stride in the last few weeks as their LSC schedule began.

The team lost six of its first eight matches, three each at its two opening-weekend tournaments, including the Rattler Invitational, which it hosted just before the LSC Challenge. With said challenge, however, came a turning point for STM, as its 3-2 conference record features wins in three of its last four matches. It will now be on the road hoping to extend its stretch of quality play with a Friday match against Texas A&M-International followed by a 2:00 p.m. Saturday matchup with the Javelinas.

Senior outside hitter Landri Withers leads the team in kills with 3.36 per set, the sixth-most in the LSC, her .246 hitting percentage is also the 23rd-highest in the conference. Senior defensive specialist/libero Alyssa Koehl has been nothing short of stellar on the defensive end, averaging 5.44 digs per set, which not only leads the conference but are also the 13th-most in all of D2. She is also 20th in the conference in service aces per set, with six fewer total aces than junior setter Haleigh Wilk, who averages the fourth-most aces in the LSC. 


Javelina Quick Hitters:

• The Javelinas are off to the best start, record wise, in the history of the program. In its existence since 1988, no TAMUK volleyball team has ever held a 12-3 record through 15 matches. The team has the fewest overall losses of any team in the Lone Star Conference and sits in third place in the conference standings with a 4-1 record in LSC play
• 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 finished their roadtrip last weekend with a nail-biting five-set loss to the Western New Mexico in Silver City, taking their first LSC loss of the year
• Kingsville's high-powered offense is, statistically, the best in the conference and one of the best in the nation - it averages the most hitting percentage and points per set of any team in the LSC, and averages the second most kills and asssits
• Senior RS/S Rylan Pollard has stuffed the stat sheet in every possible way early in the year, bringing averages of 3.08 kills/s (12th in LSC), 5.34 assists/s (13th in LSC), and 2.12 digs/s , as well as a .269 hitting percentage (16th in LSC) into the weekend. She has already posted six triple doubles this season, 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
• Senior RS Kendall Harrington has been the epitome of efficiency early in the year, averaging 2.96 kills/s (13th in LSC) while averaging a ridiculous .356 attack percentage (5th 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, brining 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 21 total aces are the sixth most in the LSC
• Defensively, junior DS/L Monique Gonzalez leads the team with 3.18 digs per set, with sophomore DS/L Tayae Garcia not far behind, averaging 2.70 d/s