Kingsville - Winners of three of its last four matches, the Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team is set to host the UT-Tyler Patriots (Friday, 6:00 p.m.) and the UT-Dallas Comets (Saturday, 2:00 p.m.) on Senior Weekend.

The matches will be Javelinas fans' final opportunities to watch the team play in the SPEC this season. TAMUK will honor its five graduating seniors at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, ahead of first serve for the team's Senior Day matchup with the Comets. Not only that, but each match holds significant weight in the fight for a spot in the Lone Star Conference Tournament. Kingsville currently holds the seventh seed at 8-5 (LSC), while Tyler remains in a three-way tie of teams that sit just one game ahead of TAMUK - the other two are St. Mary's and Texas Woman's; the Hogs have the tiebreaker over both.

After a mid-season stumble that saw TAMUK lose four matches in a stretch of five contests, the team got right at the perfect moment, and has now won three of its last four matches, with its only loss coming in four sets to conference-leading Lubbock Christian. 

UT-T and TAMUK have faced off just eight times, with the Patriots holding a slight, 5-3, edge in the matchup's history. The Hogs, however, has won two of the matchup's three home contests, and the team split their two most recent matches, each of which were played in Kingsville in 2024.

The Javelinas and the Comets have played just one time in the programs' histories, with Kingsville coming out on top. 


Scouting the Competition: The UT-Tyler Patriots

The Patriots have had a stellar year up to this point, riding back-to-back wins and a 9-4 LSC record into Friday's key matchup with the Javelinas. Though the team started its year with three straight losses and a 4-6 non-conference record, it hit its stride at the perfect time, starting LSC play with five straight wins. Like Kingsville, UTT brings momentum into Friday's contest, having won three of its last four matches. 

At the Helm in Tyler for the tenth straight year, veteran Head Coach Lyndsay Mashe is looking to continue a streak of five straight years of bringing her team to the D2 National Tournament. Her crew's offense has been incredibly potent, ranking second in the LSC in both kills/s and assists/s, shaping Friday's contest into a battle of two versatile, efficient attacks.

Junior outside hitter Autumn Perry makes up a significant amount of that offense, putting up 3.61 (4th in LSC), while three other Patriots average north of 2.00 kill/s - Senior setter Saige Rivera pilots the O, averaging 7.74 assists/s (7th in LSC). Defensively, despite being in her first year of collegiate ball, defensive specialist/libero Anna Arceneaux leads the team in digs,with 4.78/s (4th in LSC, 49th in nation).


Scouting the Competition: The UT-Dallas Comets

In their first year as a D2 team and, subsequently, their first year in the Lone Star, the Comets sit at 7-17 and 4-9 in LSC play entering the weekend. Like Kingsville's other opponent this weekend, however, UTD brings in momentum from a pair of wins in its most recent matches. The Comets enter the weekend fresh off of a pair of home sweeps, over Sul Ross St. and Western New Mexico, last weekend. 

Though it hasn't translated to as many wins as the team would like early in their time as a D2 program, the Comets are certainly a dangerous team, and have the stats to prove it. Freshman outside hitter Jane Burkhardt not only leads the team in kills, but averages the seventh-most in the conference (3.36/s). The Arizona native also adds 2.92 digs/s (27th in LSC), while another key freshman, setter Abby Gentner's 6.26 assists per set paces the team and ranks her at seventh in the conference in that stat. Junior S/defensive specialist Sydney Sabin holds the top number in the conference in both total service aces and aces/s. Junior libero Mari Hernandez averages the seventh-most digs in the conference with 4.70 digs per set.


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. Since then the Hogs have lost four of five and hold a 5-4 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 fourth-most assists per set, the fourth-most kills per set, and the fifth-highest attack percentage in the LSC
• The squad's defense has made great strides as the season has gone on as well, as it now leads the conference in both fewest opponent kills/s and fewest opponent assists/s
• Senior RS/S Rylan Pollard has stuffed the stat sheet in every possible way early in the year, bringing averages of 3.01 kills/s (15th in LSC), 4.80 assists/s, and 2.31 digs/s , as well as a .252 hitting percentage (21st in LSC) into the weekend. She has already posted eight 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 - her most recent one came in a four-set road win over DBU.
• 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 .457 attack percentage, the best in the conference and the third-best in the country
• Senior RS Kendall Harrington has been the epitome of efficiency early in the year, averaging 2.66 kills/s (22nd in LSC) while averaging a ridiculous .293 attack percentage (8th 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, has been stellar behind the service line again this year, her 35 total aces are the fifth-most in the LSC - her 5.47 assists/s are also the 11th-most in the conference
• Defensively, junior DS/L Monique Gonzalez leads the team with 3.33 digs per set (16th in LSC), with senior OH Kerigan Baumgartner and sophomore DS/L Tayae Garcia not far behind, averaging 2.73 d/s and 2.61 d/s respectively