Kingsville - The Texas A&M-Kingsville volleyball team will look to bounce back against the Pioneers from Texas Woman's as the Javelinas begin Lone Star Conference play with a 6:00 p.m. Tuesday match in Denton.

The team is off to a strong start this year, bringing an 8-2 record into LSC play alongside a top-three team attack percentage (.264) as well as the second-best service aces per set (2.28) numbers in the conference.

"Throughout preseason, we've shown that we are capable of some really great things, specifically when it comes to our offensive numbers," Head Coach Tanya Allen-Gonzalez said. "However, now that we are starting conference play, it's important that the team maintains a consistent level of play. We can't have stretches of highs and lows, because the competition level is too high in the LSC to recover after the lows."

Led offensively by a pair of senior right sides, Rylan Pollard and Kendall Harrington, the Javelinas also rank in the top five in the LSC in both kills/s and assists/s. Both Harrington and Pollard have already brought home LSC weekly honors, earning the LSC Offensive Player of the Week and LSC Setter of the Week awards respectively. Pollard leads the team with 3.20 k/s while Harrington isn't far behind with 2.93/s while hitting .384, second on the squad behind junior middle blocker Natalee Rush's .521.

Defensively, TAMUK has shown a lot to like as well, holding opponents to just 9.65 kills/s, by far the fewest in the LSC. Junior defensive specialist/libero Monique Gonzalez paces the team on that end of the floor with 3.08 digs/s.

Scouting the Pioneers:

After a 19-10 season in 2024 that saw TWU make an appearance in both the LSC and the South Central Regional Tournaments, the team is off to a 7-4 start this year. The Pioneers began the year with wins in six of their first eight matches but have fallen in two of their past three, facing No.2 Central Oklahoma (L, 1-3) on the road before returning home to take on St. Mary's (L, 3-1) and Dallas Baptist (W, 3-2). 

The team has proved its potency on both ends early, with senior PIN Tori Woods averaging an excellent 3.57 kill/s on a .296 attack percentage, leading the offense, while sophomore MB Jonaida Donowa leading the front row on the defensive side, averaging 1.10 blocks/s. As a team, TWU's 2.44 blocks/s are the second most in the LSC.

"I expect TWU to play well at home," Allen-Gonzalez said. "They have big blockers on the right and they have a number of kids that are capable of getting kills. I expect to have to have a sideout at 65% or higher, and try to hold them to below a .200 if we want to get this first win."

First serve for the match is set for 6:00 p.m., with the match to be streamed live on FloCollege.