Texas State Volleyball returns home for Bobcat Invitational

After traveling down I-35 to San Antonio and then across the pacific ocean to Hawaii, the Bobcats finally return home to host the Bobcat Invitational.

The Bobcats’ first two losses of the season came in the Hawaiian islands after sweeping the UIW Invitational against Incarnate Word and Houston Baptist. The maroon and gold played a close first set with Hawaii, but weren’t able to carry their momentum over to the rest of the match.

“Yeah, we’re just disappointed we couldn’t finish. We had set point there in that first set and had a lot of momentum,” head coach Sean Huiet said via press release. “We needed to finish that, but I also don’t love how we responded in set two. That’s not our style of volleyball. I thought we picked it up in set three and did some things well. But, again, there at the end, we just have to finish. Against a team like Hawaii, they work very low air and had only four unearned errors. And the fact that we were in that match and playing at a high level, I’m just disappointed we couldn’t finish.”

The ‘Cats’ second loss of 2022 had more positives than the first, but still was full of teaching moments for Texas State. Huiet felt the Bobcats’ front line led the maroon and gold in their matchup with UCLA.

“I’m happy with how our middle (blockers) played tonight. I thought Tessa (Marshall) and Jill (Slaughter) did a really good job. Tessa led us tonight (in kills) and Jill’s energy really tried to get the team going,” Huiet said. “We are at the beginning stages of our season and are just trying to find out what our identity is. I think this weekend, with a little bit stronger competition, we are kind of questioning where we are at. We are an older group, so we are frustrated a little bit but, again, it’s so early in our season. I thought tonight, as a team, we didn’t pass extremely great, but we did a good job of finding our middles because they led us.”

The Bobcats finished off the trip beating Big 12 opponent West Virginia 3-1, but the biggest moment of the match was fifth-year senior setter Emily DeWalt hitting the 5,000 assist mark for her career.

“Emily runs the offense. She knows the system. I say it all the time, she just does things you can’t teach, so it was nice to be able to find our offense and get it going a little bit. We’ve challenged them,” Huiet said via TXST Athletics. ” We came here to win volleyball matches. We thought we played really well against Hawaii but had a little bit of a letdown and couldn’t finish. Then we didn’t like how we played against UCLA, so we challenged them today and I thought the team stepped up—”

“It felt great being able to reach that milestone in a win,” DeWalt added. “Especially being able to leave Hawaii on a high note is great so we can carry the momentum into our tournament next weekend.”

Texas State (4-2) will match up with Sam Houston State, Ole Miss and Wake Forest throughout the weekend, beginning with Sam Houston (3-5) at 2 p.m. and Ole Miss (0-4) at 7 p.m. on Sept. 9. The Bobcats will finish up the Invitational with Wake Forest (4-2) at noon on Sept. 11.