LAREDO, Texas – St. Edward's University Volleyball defeated Texas A&M-International 3-1 on Saturday in the Kinesiology and Convocation Building, avenging a four-set home loss to the Dust Devils from earlier this season.
A superior presence at the net and quality service game helped pushed the Hilltoppers past the home team as they out-blocked TAMIU 8-6 and out-served their opponent by the same margin with a season-high eight service aces. The win improves St. Edward's to 7-15 overall and 5-6 in Heartland Conference play. The Dust Devils fall to 7-10 and 7-6.
Katie Hendrix accounted for over half of the Topper's blocks, taking part in six block assists while
KATIE MARTIN led the attack with 11 kills.
JULIA HARTLEY finished the day with 17 assists and
MORGAN BECKHAM remained stalwart at libero with 22 digs.
MIKAYLA GRILL, along with Martin, Beckham, and Hartley, all added two service aces each.
"Today we had a great team effort against a strong TAMU-International team," said head coach Mary DeJute. "Our defense, especially our blocking, did a fantastic job containing their hitters.
TABITHA ELDER did a nice job putting up big hands.
MADELYN PASHIBIN hit well, and so did Hendrix who also had some key momentum-changing kills. We have been plagued by injury this season, but we are not out of this yet."
In game one Hilltopper hitting errors put the visitors in a hole and allowed the Dust Devils to grab an early 1-0 lead in the match, winning 25-17. However, game two would prove to be a much different story.
St. Edward's stormed out of the gate to take an early lead and never looked back. A tie score at 2-2 would be the closest TAMIU would get to the Hilltoppers. Coach DeJute's team posted an attacking percentage of .300 in the set on the way to a 25-15 win, tying the match at one game each.
Game three opened with hints of a battle to come as both teams traded points in the early going. However, a kill from Pashibin tied the game at eight, and sparked a Hilltopper run of seven straight points to take a commanding 15-8 lead. At 16-10 a kill from Hendrix squelched a potential Dust Devil rally, and St. Edward's would cruise to a 25-17 win and a 2-1 lead in the match.
In set four TAMU-International proved determined to keep things close, never trailing by three and leading by as many as four. With the Toppers trailing 22-21, looking down the barrel of a fifth set, Martin would tie the game at 22 and Beckham served her team to a 25-22 win to clinch the match.
Coach DeJute and her team take the floor next in a rematch against Newman on Thursday at home in the Recreation and Convocation Center. First serve is set for 7 p.m. with live stats and video available at GoHilltoppers.com.
