SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Sept. 22, 2023) – Behind a career high attacking performance from Cara Pool, the Texas Woman's volleyball defeated St. Mary's Friday night to open Lone Star Conference action with a win.
 
TWU (9-3, 1-0) had not faced STMU (5-7, 0-1) in San Antonio since the 2014 season and had not recorded a win in San Antonio since 2013 – a 10-year drought which they broke tonight.
 
"I'm very proud of our team tonight," TWU Volleyball Head Coach Jeff Huebner said. "We did a great job solving the match for our own strengths. Cara and Kady, combined with Grace and Kiana were fantastic the whole way, while Tori, Luna and Eduarda handled serve receive against a very good serving team. Winning road matches in our league is critical, and our team demonstrated great maturity tonight."
 
For the second straight year in a row, the Pioneers opened their LSC slate against the Rattlers and started the conference schedule 1-0. TWU extended their season win streak to six across four sets of action tonight.
 
Coming into Friday night's match, the Pioneers were riding a 15-set win streak, which they lengthened to 17 tonight before falling in set three to the Rattlers; nevertheless, TWU was able to turn the tides and reclaim the victory in set four to record the match win, 3-1.
 
Pool, who now leads the LSC in highest hitting percentage on the season and is tied for 19th in Division II, averaging .412 across 100 kills, led the Pioneers' attack in San Antonio. The senior middle blocker finished the match with a career high 20 kills in efficient style, hitting .469 across the four sets. Pool also added three block assists to total 21.5 points – also a career high. Tonight marked Pool's third match of the season with 10 or more kills and fifth time this season hitting over .400.
 
Two more Pioneers joined Pool with double digit kills. Freshman middle blocker Kady Hansen made it a marvelous night for the TWU middles, as she finished the match with 15 kills and hit .520 on the night – her seventh match with 10 or more kills and her sixth match hitting .500 or better. Hansen currently ranks fourth in the LSC in hitting percentage, hitting .390 on the season.
 
The third Pioneer to finish the night with double digit kills was Tori Woods. Woods closed the match with 10 kills and 12 digs to record her third double-double of the season. With 135 kills on the season, averaging 3.00 per set, Woods comes in at number nine on the LSC leader board.
 
TWU hit .241 on the match, a feat which was aided by the success of the Pioneers' setters Grace Reynolds and Kiana Reed. Reynolds led all players with 30 assists and topped the match leader board in digs with 18 to record her fifth double-double of the season and second straight. Kiana Reed added 25 assists to the Pioneers' total, along with one ace to guide TWU to the win. With the .241 this match, TWU ranks second in the LSC and 24th in Division II in team hitting percetage, hitting .251on the season. 
 
For the seventh straight time this season, the Pioneers held their opponent to hitting under .200. Defense at the net was controlled by Pool with three block assists and Eduarda Dutra with two block assists. Dutra also recorded a career high 17 digs to help the Pioneers' defensive efforts, and Luna França rounded out the double-digit digs performances with 15.
 
In the win, Dutra also contributed five kills to account for 10 points, marking another career high for the freshman outside hitter.
 
The Pioneers took some time to find their footing in the match, as the first set was a back-and-forth thriller. Despite jumping out to a 13-7 lead, TWU allowed the Rattlers to score five unanswered points to come within one, 13-12. Then, the back-and-forth truly began as no team lead by more than two points the rest of the way.
 
STMU took the late one point lead 23-22, but TWU would not allow them to score another point, closing the set with three straight kills from Pool, Kaia Saylor and Lexi Williams, to claim set one, 25-23.  
 
After finding their groove, the Pioneers settled into set two. An ace by Kiana Reed gave the Pioneers the early 7-3 advantage and it was only up from there, as the Rattlers would never lead in set two.
 
TWU found their largest lead of the set at eight points, 23-15, off a monster block by Woods and Pool. Then, two kills by Pool would close the set, 25-18, and give the Pioneers the 2-0 match advantage.
 
Although they aimed to close out STMU in set three, the Pioneers faltered, allowing the Rattlers to jump out to an early 5-1 lead, which they continued to build upon. TWU could not overcome the set three deficit and fell 25-18.
 
Nonetheless, TWU renewed their energy and set out to complete their goal in set four. After STMU opened the set with a 7-4 advantage, the Pioneers quickly regrouped and tied the score off a kill by Marina Obradovic, which ignited a 4-0 run for TWU to take the lead, 11-7. The Rattlers would never see the lead again.
 
TWU mounted a late 5-0 run, which was started by a kill from Hansen, to claim a deciding six point advantage, 18-12. The Rattlers brought one more push, coming within four, 23-19, but the Pioneers quickly shut them down. A STMU attack error and Hansen kill would close the set for the Pioneers, 25-19, and give TWU the match win, 3-1.
 
The Pioneers have a quick turnaround and are back in action tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. in Austin, Texas for their second LSC match of the weekend against St. Edward's.