Sugar Bears Barely Escape Frenetic Texas State Comeback Effort

Wednesday night's volleyball match against Central Arkansas was a tough one for all Texas State fans to stomach. The match was sent to 5 sets after the Bobcats lost the first two sets, rallied to win the next two but then ended up defeated 15-12 in the final set. Although several of the Bobcats’ key players had strong performances, it was just simply not enough to overpower Central Arkansas’ solid team.

Despite their efforts, the first set was problematic for the Bobcats for many reasons. First off, they seemed as if they got a late start to the match. The ‘Cats came off sluggish and unfocused in the first set and the Sugar Bears were anything but. Central Arkansas took the set 25-18.

The second set seemed promising for the Bobcats especially with Mo Middleton’s triumphant ace early in the quarter giving Texas State their first lead of the set. The set was very close, neither team lead by more than a couple of points until about the-half way point when the Bears started dominating. But it was mental mistakes that really cost the Bobcats in this set. Miscommunication, spot assignments, and even a violation for illegal rotation badly hurt Texas State and disrupted their focus. The final score for the second set came to 25-18 in Central Arkansas’ favor with key player, #13 Chloe Smith, contributing 2 aces and 9 kills throughout the first two sets.

The third set was a roller coaster ride. The Bobcats had a slow start, but after a time out early on, the team’s morale was quickly revived. More importantly, the Bobcats started playing more aggressively. In the first two sets the Sugar Bears capitalized on the fact that the Bobcats did a lot of tipping.. However, in the third and fourth sets, the Cats really started spiking the ball, and it worked. The harder Texas State took up spiking positions the better the score board began to look. The hard hits were not returnable for the Bears and Texas State took the third set 25-23 with a crucial spike from Amber Calhoun.

The momentum continued throughout the fourth set with crucial digs, and saves by Shelbi Irvin, that seemed to get the Bears shook up as they called for multiple time-outs. The Bobcats aggressive play led to a fourth set victory of 25-18.

Team enthusiasm carried on into the fifth set for both teams. The Bobcats played aggressively with active team communication but it was just simply not enough. Even though the Bobcats battled the entire way, the Sugar Bears ended up winning the fifth set 15-12. Texas State suffered a potential 2-point swing when UCA led 13-12 on controversial call by the head referee. The Bobcats looked to have kept a set-tying kill in bounds on a call by the line judge, but despite the fact that the line judge was in the best position to make the call, the head referee overruled in favor of UCA anyway.

After the match head coach Karen Chisum said she was extremely pleased with Shelbi Irvin’s 19 digs and 32 assists. She also commented on how impressed she was with freshman Matti Schumacher’s successes of 6/10 kill attempts. “We can use tonight’s game as momentum for the game next week,” said coach Chisum.

Texas State’s record now falls to 9-12, 3-3 in Southland Conference action. The Bobcats will travel to Natchitoches next week to challenge Northwestern State. Match time starts at 2 pm.

-Lauren Scalise, KTSW Sports Staff Writer