Bolden’s Career High Powers TXST Past Appalachian State

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State volleyball team earned a hard-fought 3-2 (18-25, 25-19, 26-28, 25-14, 15-13) victory over Appalachian State Sunday afternoon inside Strahan Coliseum.

The Bobcats improved to 10-9 overall and 3-1 in the Sun Belt Conference, while the Mountaineers (2-15, 0-4 SBC) lost their 14th match in a row.

Junior Jaliyah Bolden blasted a career-high 19 kills, which included five in the decisive fifth set. Senior Shelby Vas Matt (12 kills, 12 digs) and junior Erin Hoppe (38 assists, 11 digs) both registered double-doubles, while senior Lauren Kirch added 12 kills and six blocks. Senior Ali Hubicsak contributed 12 digs to the winning cause.

Texas State came out of the gates a little slow, as the visitors were able to power to a 13-7 lead in the first set. The Bobcats battled back to find themselves trailing just 17-15, but the Mountaineers closed out the opener by a 25-18 margin.

The second set was more friendly to the home team, as they turned a 12-12 deadlock into a 20-14 advantage and held on for the 25-19 win.

The third frame closely mirrored the first early on as Appalachian State initially took a 12-6 lead, but the Bobcats came back to tie the match at 16-16 and the two sides battled into extra points. Both teams looked to take control, and it was the visitors who would win 28-26 after Texas State was unable to capitalize on any of its four set points.

The Bobcats were undeterred despite being down 2-1, as they came out on fire in the fourth. TXST jumped on top 8-3 and never looked back, tying the match at 2-2 by winning the set 25-14.

Texas State gained control of the fifth by pulling ahead 9-4, but App State won six of the next seven points to notch proceedings at 10-10. A service error allowed the Bobcats to regain the lead, and two final kills from Bolden coupled with a pair of errors handed the match to the maroon and gold.

Jenna Talbert paced the visitors with 15 kills, while Emma Longley posted a double-double with 11 digs and 10 kills. Ashlyn Brown also had a double-double (14 digs, 13 assists), Amanda Krahl distributed 20 assists and Kennedy Wilson tallied a match-high 19 digs.

Texas State led in kills (58-46), blocks (13-11) and hitting percentage (.158-.109). The Bobcats also improved to 3-3 all-time against ASU.

TXST will remain home for two more matches next weekend. First up will be a 6:30 p.m. contest Oct. 7 against Arkansas State.

TEXAS STATE COACH KAREN CHISUM

On grinding out a five-set win…

“I told them after the match that it didn’t matter how good or how bad it looked, we were just happy to get a win. That’s what we needed to go into the week, especially after we were unable to win Friday. I saw some grit today. We weren’t at our best, but it didn’t matter because we found our grit. Our coaching staff was able to find our lineup going into the fourth set. We put Morgan Lewis in and Jaliyah (Bolden) on the right side, which really sparked us.”

On Morgan Lewis entering the match in the fourth set…

“Morgan is a captain and an inspirational leader for us. She is positive and brings energy, and she did a good job today no doubt about it. Jaliyah had her best match, and our setters did a good job of getting the ball to her.

On Appalachian State…

“They played a lot better today than they had all year long. We watched a lot of video on them and they have struggled after being so good last year, but they are not a bad team as you saw. I was happy we were able to get the win today, especially when you look ahead and see that we have home matches against Arkansas State and Little Rock next weekend.”