Texas State Volleyball Clinches Sun Belt Regular Season Championship

The day began on an emotional high as Porter started for the first time since suffering a knee injury in the third match of the season.

The Texas State volleyball team swept ULM 3-0 (25-10, 25-23, 25-14) Sunday afternoon to earn no worse than a share of the 2018 Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Championship.

The Bobcats (22-5, 13-0 Sun Belt) won their 17th-straight match, which is the longest streak since 2000 and third-longest in school history. They secured their first regular-season title since 2011 when they won the Southland Conference Championship.

This also marked their second Sun Belt title, with the other being the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Tournament Championship. The maroon and gold can lock up the title outright with one more victory or one more loss by Appalachian State in the final two weeks of the campaign.

Texas State has also locked up the No. 1 overall seed in the conference tournament and will begin play in the semifinals Nov. 17. The postseason event will be contested Nov. 15-18 in Atlanta and hosted by Georgia State.

TXST had a pre-match ceremony Sunday to pay tribute to its four seniors (Halee Brewer, Madison Daigle, Megan Porter, Amy Pflughaupt), graduate assistant Summer Morgan and male practice player Amir Lancaster. There was also a celebration at intermission to honor the 10-year anniversary of the 2008 Bobcat team that won the SLC crown.

Brewer led Texas State with a career-high 11 kills, true freshman Emily DeWalt distributed 38 assists and junior Cheyenne Huskey tallied 10 digs.

Tara Jenkins paced the Warhawks (9-16, 2-10 Sun Belt) with 11 assists.

The maroon and gold led in kills (45-24), attack percentage (.388-.055), assists (45-23), aces (8-4), digs (46-19) and blocks (7-5).

SET 1
The day began on an emotional high as Porter started for the first time since suffering a knee injury in the third match of the season. She served the first two points and was subbed out, receiving a standing ovation upon making her exit. The team needed a few moments to lock back in, but the focus came in spades as the Bobcats went on a 20-5 run to win the opening period 25-10.

SET 2
ULM gave no quarter in the second set, finding a 14-10 lead at one point and maintaining that four-point cushion until 21-17. Following a perfectly-placed timeout, Texas State was able to overwhelm the Warhawks and score eight of the next 10 points to take a 2-0 lead into intermission.

SET 3
The Bobcats wasted no time in getting the championship celebration started, as they quickly won the third and final frame 25-14.

Texas State improved to 44-2 all-time against the Warhawks and has taken each of the last 13 matches in the series.

The Bobcats have three more matches remaining in the regular season that will all be contested on the road. First up will be a 6:30 p.m. bout Nov. 2 against Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Ark.