Upperclassmen Lead TXST To Ninth-Straight Victory In One Hour, Two Minutes

“I can’t believe it’s been 10 years. I’m in coaching because of these players and the personal relationships that we create.” Coach Karen Chisum said.

San Marcos, Texas – The Texas State volleyball team collected a decisive 3-0 (25-10, 25-17, 25-8) victory over Georgia State Saturday night inside Strahan Coliseum.

In a match that took just one hour, two minutes, the Bobcats (17-7, 8-1 SBC) were able to record their ninth-consecutive triumph. TXST has also shutout each of its last eight Sun Belt Conference adversaries, which is the longest such streak since the maroon and gold set the school record of nine-straight league sweeps in 2000.

Texas State was led, in part, by the middle-blocking duo of senior Jaliyah Bolden and junior Madison Daigle. Bolden erupted for 10 kills and just one error on 16 swings for a career-high .562 attack percentage. Daigle pummeled the stat sheet with 11 kills on a .368 hitting percentage to go along with three digs, two assists, one solo block and a career-high four service aces.

Senior Erin Hoppe steered the offensive onslaught with 34 assists, while adding five digs, three kills and no errors of her own (.750). Sophomores Micah Dinwiddie (17) and Amy Pflughaupt (10) both tallied double-digit digs, and true freshman Tyeranee Scott tied her career high with eight kills, while hitting .538 and adding five blocks.

Texas State never faced much push back on the night, as the lone lead for the Panthers came at 2-1 in the third set. The maroon and gold went on top 8-3 in the first game and was able to increase the advantage to 18-6 before closing out the period 25-10.

The early lead in the second frame sat at 12-5 before the Bobcats were able to pull away at 23-13. GSU went on a mini 4-2 run to close out the set at 25-17 in favor of the home team.

Despite earning its lone lead of the match at 2-1, Georgia State had no answer for Texas State in the third as the Bobcats ran away with the final frame 25-8. The last time the Panthers were held to single digits in a set came on Oct. 23, 2015, when they fell 25-9 in the second set against UTA. This also marked the first time this season that TXST held an opponent to single digits for an entire set.

Georgia State rotated three different setters in the match, with Sarah Renner finishing with a team-high 10 assists. No Panther tallied more than four kills or five digs. Libero Celeste Friesen entered the match second in the Sun Belt at 5.01 digs per set, but she finished with a career-low five. She had posted double-digit digs in each of her last 13 outings and had at least nine digs in every match this season.

Texas State dominated the match in every statistical category, including kills (45-16), attack percentage (.388-(-).022), assists (40-16), aces (8-1), digs (49-25), and blocks (6-5).

Georgia State came into the match leading the Sun Belt with 130 aces before finishing with just one against TXST. Also, the last time a Texas State opponent finished with 16 kills or fewer came on Sept. 4, 2015, when Prairie View A&M finished with 13. The match marked the second time in 2017 that the Bobcats were able to hold an opponent to a negative hitting percentage. UMass Lowell hit -.073 on Sept. 9.

Texas State is now set to venture to Louisiana for its next two matches. TXST will first meet ULM at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 26 in Monroe, Louisiana, before heading into the fortress known as Earl K. Long Gym. The maroon and gold will take on powerhouse Louisiana at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 28 in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Ragin’ Cajuns have won eight of their last nine at home and entered Saturday night’s action leading the SBC West Division.

TEXAS STATE COACH KAREN CHISUM

Opening Statement…

“I liked how we responded tonight after how poorly we played yesterday. We were very pleased. The team got on a roll. They were very focused, and we just took care of business tonight. We never gave Georgia State a chance to be in the match.”

On Madison Daigle’s energy levels…

“She brings (high energy) every match. I am extremely proud of her. She has improved so much since last year. She’s playing at an all-conference level right now. But we have five hitters at any given time we can go to. Jaliyah Bolden had a great match tonight. Erin (Hoppe) and Jaliyah are our two seniors, and you can see they’ve got something going. Erin knows to set Jaliyah when things are going right with her. (Jaliyah) needed that confidence boost tonight because she struggled a little bit last night (against Georgia Southern). It was nice to see her back in the match contributing.”

On the reunion of the 2007 Southland Conference Championship team…

“I can’t believe it’s been 10 years. I’m in coaching because of these players and the personal relationships that we create. We stay in touch with all of our former players. They have such a good time when they’re able to come back and get together like this. Some of them are married now. Some have fiancés and children, so this was a girl’s weekend for them. They have great memories from their time at Texas State. That means everything in the world to me.”

On next weekend’s road trip to ULM and powerhouse Louisiana…

“After how we played last night, I was getting worried that we might have peaked too early and we were going on a downslide. I don’t have to worry about that anymore. The production we had tonight was tremendous. Our confidence is back up high again. We’re going to have two really good days of practice, and then we will travel to Louisiana on Wednesday. We’ll play ULM on Thursday. That will be our main focus for the next few days. We won’t look ahead to Saturday, but I’m ready to meet the Ragin’ Cajuns.”