Kingsville - Once again riding a potent offensive attack, the Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team took down the Texas A&M-International Dustdevils in three sets (25-19, 25-5, 25-20), winning the first of a pair of Lone Star Conference Challenge matches, extending the Javelinas win streak to five.
The team swung .349 while holding the Dustdevils to just .068, marking the third straight match that the team has averaged at least a .345 attack percentage. Senior RS/S
Rylan Pollard, the reigning LSC Setter of the Week, tied with junior MB
Natalee Rush for the match high in kills with 11 each. For Pollard, the match is her seventh straight with at least 10 kills, while it is Rush's third with double-digit kills, a feat which she accomplished on just 12 swings.
"We obviously love the wins, we just talked about that in the huddle, it's something we don't look past," Head Coach
Tanya Allen-Gonzalez said. "We are glad that we got the win, but we have some things on our side that we need to work on so we can continue to do well on the court. And we know obviously the LSC is incredibly tough, so every night, tough competition, so we can't let up and have easy plays get away from us."
A major key to the team's victory was its work behind the service line, where the Hogs totalled 13 aces, with eight different players tallying at least one. Leading the way were junior DS/L
Monique Gonzalez with four, and senior S
Elisa Carli and Pollard, who each had two.Â
Gonzalez, who started the match at libero, added a match-high 10 digs and two assists to her day as well, while the team's other transfer, junior OH
Kamryn Briggs, had a strong outing as well, posting seven digs, three kills, an assist, an ace, and a pair of block assists.
Despite a late and furious comeback attempt from the Dustdevils, the Javelinas were stellar in every phase of the game, ripping of flong scoring tears, including a scoring seven straight points to open up the second set, and pulling away in the third via nine straight points.
The team has one more opponent to face as part of the LSC Challenge, Midwestern State, who the Javelinas will battle at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Though neither it nor and Thursday's win over TAMIU will count toward any of the teams' LSC standings, it will still affect the all-important regional standings, and give the squads a taste of familiar conference foes before the start of true LSC play.
"It's exciting, I think it's something to look forward to," Pollard said. "It gives us more motivation to keep working, keep at it. Obviously, like tonight, we can pick and choose things that we need to work on, so I think it's good."
Â
