The No. 7-ranked WTAMU volleyball team remained perfect in Lone Star Conference play with a victory over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Oct. 25, their only game played this past week. The win also extended the team’s current winning streak to 14 consecutive matches.
“Impressive we won in three [sets], because we were getting our butts kicked in the first two sets,” head coach Jason Skoch said. “We were getting hammered in set two – I think we were down 12-18 and took the lead, 19-18 – and eventually won.”
The Lady Buffs defeated the Javelinas in a sweep [26-24, 25-22, 25-20] behind redshirt senior Laura Iwuchukwu’s twelve kills. Senior Halie Harton tallied ten kills and 18 digs for a double-double and junior Lauren Bevan hammered down ten kills of her own.
Junior Kameryn Hayes, fresh off a week that saw her named LSC Co-Setter of Week, continued to set her teammates up with great spiking opportunities with 24 assists. Freshman Kyli Schulz recorded 20 assists of her own while redshirt freshman Lauren Britten racked up 15 digs.
WT hit .290 as a team and totaled four blocks on the evening while holding A&M-Kingsville to a .189 clip. The Javelinas also totaled four blocks, but had 21 attack errors.
The victory improved the Lady Buffs’ overall record to 20-3 and extended their perfect conference record to 10-0. A&M-Kingsville fell to 13-12 on the season and 5-5 in LSC play.
However, Skoch was not happy with the result of what should have been a laid-back week that he believed should have been a well-deserved rest for the Lady Buffs.
“This weekend was rough,” Skoch said. “I let off at practice [this week] – with discipline – with the hopes of, A) giving mental rest and, B) helping [the players] have fun; it backfired.
“We were sloppy – no energy and made tons of errors. This is not me being ‘tough,’ this is me being honest. One match for the entire week and we just went through the motions.”
WT will travel to Lawton, Oklahoma to take on the Aggies of Cameron on Oct. 29. They will return home for the weekend to host the Zias of Eastern New Mexico on Nov. 1 and the Crimson Storm of Southern Nazarene on Nov. 2.
