Kingsville - The Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team posted almost unbelievable offensive numbers in a five-set win over Southern Arkansas in its first and only match on the first day of the Third Annual Javelina Volleyball Classic.
As has been the case numerous times already this year, the senior right-side pairing of
Rylan Pollard and
Kendall Harrington led the Javelinas, as Harrington posted a TAMUK career-high 18 kills while Pollard posted her fifth career triple double, collecting 11 kills, 27 assists, and a career-high 25 digs.
"I love my setter Rylan, who's right there," Harrington said at the post-match presser. "We passed really well, and I think it's just having trust in my teammates behind me, knowing that they're covering me, I have a lot of confidence."
Three other Javelinas joined their RS's with double figures in kills, including junior OH
Rylie Barnett, junior MB
Natalee Rush, and sophomore MB
Karrington Crawford, whose 14, 12, and 12 kills respectively were single-match career highs. They contributed to a stellar, .306, team attack percentage.Â
"So the scouting report is in transition, we wanted to run our middles, so when we got digs, push to the middle of the court, we knew we would get a one-on-one opportunity for our middles," Allen-Gonzalez said. "So, we worked on that a lot since the course of the season started, and I think all of our middles really have improved a lot in that area, and I think it showed tonight in their numbers."
The incredible numbers don't end there, though. Sophomore Libero
Tayae-Renae Garcia collected 18 digs across the five sets, adding in a pair of fifth-set aces as the team pulled away early in the tiebreaker. Freshman DS
Kendra Denoon wasn't far behind, putting up 13 digs, the most in a single match in her young career. As if that wasn't enough, senior setter
Elisa Carli, put up 25 assists to go along with five digs and tied her season high with four service aces.
The match served as the nightcap on day one of the tournament and was thrilling from start to finish. Though Kingsville dominated the first and third set, winning 25-16, and 25-10 respectively, the Muleriders responded each time in turn, turning up their front-row defense and playing hard-fought second and fourth sets to tie the set score each time. The fifth set, however, was back to Javelina domination, as Kingsville opened the set by taking an 8-1 lead behind an excellent service streak from Garcia. Fittingly, it was an ace from Pollard, her second of the contest, that ended the match.
Kingsville moves up to 4-1 with the win and will play a pair of matches tomorrow, facing off with Lake Erie College in a match set for noon before taking on Southeastern Oklahoma State at 6:30 p.m..
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