Bobcats Win Home Opener, Smash Texas Tech in Front of Record Crowd

Coming into Wednesday night, the Texas State volleyball team needed a comeback after last week’s tournament losses against BYU, Ole Miss and Missouri, and that along the prospect of playing a big name like Texas Tech only added to an already feverish level of anticipation before the start of the game in Strahan. What followed was an attendance record of 2,389 students, parents, faculty members and Texas State fans, along with a frenzied win by the Bobcats over the visiting Red Raiders The momentum was high and the crowd was wild. It was a great turn out for the Bobcats and fans couldn’t have asked for a better starting game of the year.

Mo Middleton had the first serve for the Bobcats and went into a back and forth bump, set, and spike play. Tech came out with a double block and went out of bounds, giving the Bobcats the first point of the game. However, a couple of timely Red Raider scores put the score at 5-3 in favor of Texas Tech after the first few minutes. Texas Tech was making kills straight down towards the middle or at the end of the court where no one was covering. You really didn’t expect what kind of play the Raiders were going to serve up after each service. The confusion put the 'Cats on their toes at first and had them scrambling around the court.

However, someone would always eventually step up for Texas State. No matter how many points Tech would score, the Bobcats would step up to their mistakes and tie it up. The scoreboard was always back and forth, and if you were a fan watching you knew that it could go either way. Whether it was over/under the net, short serves, or that they just didn’t get there in time, the Bobcat players still fought through the adversity and managed to win the first set. Tech also had a hand in helping the Bobcats with unforced errors, as Texas State won the first set 25-23 due to a short serve by the Red Raiders.

As the second set came around, you could tell the Bobcats were hyped up, but Tech was also eager to make up for the last set. The Red Raiders came in hungry and hit the sideline kills, double blocks and corner side tips. Tech was dominating the floor and lead the score 11-5. This set really seemed to be Tech’s win, but Texas State didn’t give up. Some of the Bobcat players that stepped up in this set were blocker Brittany Collins , Jessica Weynand, Mo Middleton, and AJ Watlington. This may have been the most intense set, as Texas State won by only a point with the score ending at 26-25.

Coming into the third set, the Bobcats realized that Tech wasn’t going to go down easily and they re-focused to positive results. Texas State dominated down the stretch and scored the last winning points to win the third set and the game by a score of 25-21. The final result was three sets won by State and zero for Tech, 25-23, 26-25, and 25-21. Even more impressive was the fact that the 'Cats kept Tech from winning their first set of the entire year, increasing the Red Raiders' drought to 9 sets lost in a row.

The Bobcats will be on the road for the next few days, with stops in Wisconsin for the Marquette Invitational and Waco for a road match against another Big 12 foe in Baylor. However, Texas State will then start a long home stint as they host the CenturyTel Premier with games on Friday, September 11th against Texas Southern and Hofstra and a Saturday match against Texas A&M. Both Friday games will be online at txstatebobcats.com, and the Texas A&M game will be on 89.9 KTSW, ktsw.net and txstatebobcats.com.

-Jessica Salinas, KTSW Sports Staff Writer