Texas State sweeps ULM, falls flat against Louisiana

Sean Huiet is still confident he’s got a championship-caliber team. But Texas State is running out of time to look like one.

The Bobcats dominated Louisiana-Monroe on Friday in one of their better matches of the year, 3-0 (25-11, 25-7, 25-15). But the maroon and gold struggled the next day against Louisiana, falling inside Strahan Arena, 3-1 (15-25, 21-25, 25-20, 23-25).

“(I'm) just disappointed. We flat-out got out-worked and they wanted it more than us and that was the outcome,” Huiet said after Saturday’s loss. “So, very disappointed in our effort after I thought we got a little bit of our mojo back last night. But it's kind of been where we're at this season, we're really inconsistent. You know, we have kids have career highs last night and then tonight, they don't show up. And so, if we're going to be that inconsistent, I mean, I just told (the players), we're gonna be .500, if that. And so we're gonna keep grinding and figuring this group out.”

Fifth-year senior middle blocker Tyeranee Scott became the program’s all-time leader in block assists during Texas State’s match against the Warhawks (5-13, 1-2 Sun Belt), surpassing Amber Calhoun’s (2008-11) former record of 325. She finished the match with eight blocks and nine kills.

Senior outside hitter Janell Fitzgerald also posted her fourth career double-double on Friday with a team-high 11 kills and 10 digs. The momentum didn’t carry over to Saturday, though. Fitzgerald played in just the first two sets against the Ragin’ Cajuns (8-4, 3-1), earning three kills and four attacking errors on 15 attempts.

Now 17 matches into the season, Texas State (6-11, 2-2) still hasn’t found a consistent rotation night-to-night. Huiet played six different outside hitters against Louisiana. Just two — graduate Jada Gardner and redshirt junior Lauren Teske — played in all four sets. The group combined to hit for a .008 attacking percentage.

“I mean, it's been a revolving door for that spot and it was — you know, we tried to give some people a shot,” Huiet said. “And so we're working really hard to get a consistent outside. I think that's why we are, as a team, so inconsistent right now, is we're not sure which outside is going to show up and how they're going to produce. And so it's hard. Again, you saw both (Louisiana's) outsides be able to take big cracks when they needed to. And we're just playing timid at times.”

The Bobcats still showed flashes of being one of the top teams in the conference at times in Saturday’s contest. The Ragin’ Cajuns saw their hitting percentage decline in every frame from .281% in the first to .044% in the fourth.

The hosts nearly tied the last set up after falling behind 23-21. Huiet called his final timeout, hoping to halt a 3-0 run by the visitors. Scott committed an attacking error to put Louisiana at set point. But the Cajuns followed it with another attacking error to give Texas State the side out and fifth-year senior libero Brooke Johnson scored an ace to cut it to 24-23.

But the maroon and gold also often made too many mistakes to overcome, with several spikes and serves falling out of bounds. Huiet wanted his players to be aggressive in service to counter Louisiana’s fast offense. They served for four aces and 11 errors while also committing a season-high 10 receiving errors.

The maroon and gold gave up a kill on the last point, suffering a  25-23 loss in the set and a 3-1 loss in the match. It’s the first time Texas State has lost to Louisiana since Nov. 3, 2019, and just the third time in the past 10 years.

“I've done a lot of research with other coaches around the country and most people that played in the spring and then didn't really get an offseason or a break and then they're playing now are dealing with some of this,” Huiet said. “Like in one of my good friends at Western Kentucky's like, 'You know, my team's in the top 25 but they're still like, something's off and we don't know what it is.’ None of our kids want to lose, none of our kids want to look like they're not giving effort but it's been a long year. 

“That's not an excuse … We just talked a lot about how we need to keep going with the process. We don't have to be undefeated to win the conference tournament, I don't think anyone in the conference is going to be undefeated in the regular season as well … It's just taking a little longer than we thought. But no, we're still confident, we still believe in them. We know we'll be playing our best in November.”

The Bobcats go up against UT Arlington (3-10, 1-3) next week, hosting the Mavericks on Thursday and playing them in Arlington on Saturday, both matches beginning at 6 p.m.