KINGSVILLE, Texas (Oct. 20, 2018) – Texas Woman's fought hard against Texas A&M-Kingsville Saturday but lacked the defense to take more than one set off the Javelinas, dropping the match, 3-1 (17-25, 18-25, 25-23, 21-25).
"I think that Kingsville played well," TWU head coach Jeff Huebner said. "We normally do a really good job with positive block touches, but we struggled a little bit with it. It was harder to play defense today, certainly in the first two sets."
The first set started tight before defensive problems caused the Pioneers (14-11, 6-9 LSC) to be unable to stop the flurry of Javelina attacks. Junior Courtney Noel would score four of TWU's last five points but she had the service error that ended the set, 17-25, in favor of the Javelinas. TWU only mustered a .114 hitting percentage to TAMUK's .385.
Texas Woman's would see little improvement in the second set, with A&M-Kingsville (15-11, 7-8 LSC) quickly building an eight-point lead at 7-15 before the Pioneers caught a 5-0 scoring run that included kills from Ranes and freshman Taylor Frederick. Down 14-17, junior Maggie Pyles took control on offense, getting three kills to close the gap at 17-19. But Kingsville went on a 5-0 run of their own and had only one more Pyles kill to take before winning the second frame, 18-25.
"[Pyles] might be the best outside hitter defender in our conference," Huebner said. "She's been a really good leader for some of our younger freshman who are looking up to her about how to be a college athlete."
An immediate kill from Courtney Noel started the third set off right for TWU. The Pioneers improved both offensively and defensively, taking an early lead before the Javelinas adjusted and tied the match at 12-12. The remainder of the set would be a dogfight with the Javelinas nipping at the Pioneers' heels until a set from Ranes allowed freshman Elizabeth Ugbaja to drive a hard kill straight through the A&M-Kingsville defense and give TWU the set, 25-23.
"I was proud of the way that our team responded from set two to set three," Huebner said. "We were really struggling, but we had good leadership from our captain and we made some lineup adjustments and really grinded out the third."
The Pioneers kept improving in the fourth and lifted their hitting percentage to the best all day at .268, but the Javelinas adjusted accordingly. They stayed within two points of TWU the entire set until widening their lead at the 20-21 mark thanks to their powerful offensive line. Consecutive kills from TAMUK's Loren Washington and Talleyshia Morris ended the match, 21-25.
"The fourth set was a really good set, had a couple of tough calls that didn't go our way but our kids handled them really well," Huebner said. "We've had a little bit of an issue with service errors recently, but in the third and fourth sets we were back to our more consistent ways."
Noel led the Pioneers with 14 kills and three blocks while Pyles took the lead in digs with 16. The Pioneers' overall .205 hitting percent couldn't top the Javelinas' .287.
"We were more consistent with our blocking decisions, played a lot better defense in the last two sets," Huebner said. "We more than doubled our digs in sets three and four compared to sets one and two. Our servicing is a lot better, too, a lot cleaner."
TWU looks to end its three-game losing streak on Tuesday when they travel to Wichita Falls to compete against MSU Texas (5-18, 3-12 LSC) at 6 p.m. in Lone Star Conference action.
