The Bobcats bounced back last weekend with a two-game sweep of the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks, concluding with a win on Saturday 3-0 [2515, 25-16, 25-18].
Texas State improves to 10-11 for the season and 5-5 in conference play while the Warhawks fall to 9-15 overall and 0-11 in conference play.
“Really proud of the team,” Head Coach Sean Huiet said. “I felt good about this weekend. Keith [Anderson] and I were just talking and it’s been a while since we’ve swept ULM. I feel like the [the Warhawks] keep getting better. So to come in here this weekend and beat them 3-0 both matches, I feel good about that. I feel good about how we played our style of volleyball so I’m very pleased today.”
Before taking on Louisiana Monroe, the Bobcats were reeling after dropping their last two conference games against Arkansas State on the road. Back in San Marcos, the Bobcats were looking to get back to their style of play.
“It’s been kind of a theme this year,” Huiet said. “We wanted to get back to Texas State style volleyball. We wanted to get back to feeling good about what we were doing, not necessarily what was happening on the other side. I thought we did a good job recovering there [in the third set].”
Sweeping the Warhawks 3-0 [25-10, 2516, 25-18], Texas State looked to complete the two-game sweep on Saturday.
The Bobcats opened the first set in dominating fashion, defeating the Warhawks 25-15 where Texas State didn’t give up the lead or tie with ULM.
Texas State continued their dominant run in the second set, beating the Warhawks 25-16 to go up 2-0 on ULM.
But in the third set, the Bobcats found themselves trailing and in danger of letting the Warhawks back into the game.
ULM took a 5-4 lead over the Bobcats before extending it to 16-11. Despite the Bobcats scoring on two ULM attacking errors, the Warhawks scored on the kill to lead 17-13.
Now trailing with ULM looking to win the third set, junior Nina Moorer looked to regroup the Bobcats.
“We just trusted our training,” Moorer said. “It got a little bit chaotic in the beginning, and I just was trying to have everyone else slow it down, calm it down. We know what to do and play our volleyball. We’ve already played four or five sets like this and we know we can push back so just trust that we can and we did it.”
The Bobcats responded with a 6-0 run capped off by two kills from junior Brooke Bentke as Texas State took the lead at 1917. Following a score from ULM, Texas State went on another 6-0 run, finishing the set on a 121 run, to win the third set 25-18 and sweep the three-game set.
Moorer and senior Jade Defraeye led the team in kills with 10 apiece followed by senior Bailey Hanner with six. Junior Dylan Gilkey led the team in assists with 20 followed by sophomore Anna Blaine with 13.
On defense, juniors Maggie Walsh and Alyssa Clark led the team in digs with 13 and 12.
Texas State is back on the road this weekend as the Bobcats battle the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. Southern Miss is coming off splitting their two game series with Old Dominion, with the Golden Eagles winning the first game 3-1 and the Monarchs winning the second game 3-0.
In the Sun Belt West Division standings, the Bobcats trail the Golden Eagles by one game.
Tip-off for Game One is set for 6 p.m. Friday with Game Two set for 12 p.m. Saturday. Both games will be played at Southern Miss.
