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AUSTIN (October 2, 2015) – Tarleton wasted no time in disposing of St. Edward’s in a 3-0 non-conference sweep at the Recreation and Convocation Center in Austin Friday night.
The win marked the fifth straight for Tarleton (13-3, 3-1) this season and the third sweep over that span. It is also the ninth sweep of the season, which is just four shy of Tarleton’s total (13) victories via sweep from the entire 2014 season.
Tarleton opened the match with a dominant 6-0 run to kick off the first set. Kenya Alexander landed the first kill shot of the night, which was immediately followed by kills from Hailey Roberts and Meg Umbel. After a Hilltopper attack error, Roberts and Umbel combined for a block and Roberts landed her second kill of the early going for a 6-0 start to the match that forced St. Edward’s to take an early timeout.
The teams traded the next 19 points as Tarleton extended its lead to 15-9 before a kill from Xzache Mathis turned the momentum for Tarleton with a kill shot that started a 10-6 TexAnn run down the stretch to clinch the opening set 25-15.
Roberts led off the second set with back-to-back kills to spark a 4-0 Tarleton run in the beginning of the second set. The TexAnns opened the second set on an 11-3 run, which was capped with a Mathis kill shot to force a Hilltopper timeout 14 points into the new set.
The Hilltoppers pulled as close as six on three different occasions to 16-10 before a block from Umbel and Gow sparked four straight points for Tarleton that pushed the lead to 20-10 and ultimately started a 9-4 TexAnn run down the stretch to give Tarleton a 25-14 victory in set two.
St. Edward’s took its first lead of the match by scoring the opening point of the set and stretched its lead to 4-3 before a kill from Roberts, two straight aces from the reigning LSC Offensive Player of the Week, and a kill from Kelsey Raglin turned the tide and put Tarleton on top 7-4. Tarleton continued to pour it on by taking nine of the next 11 points to take a double-digit lead at 16-6.
The teams traded points over the rest of the set with Roberts landing the final strike of the match to deliver a 25-15 win for Tarleton.
Roberts led the way with 18 kills for her 23rd consecutive match with at least 10 kills. The sophomore from Cedar Park landed her 18 kills on a .378 hitting percentage with eight digs and four aces.
Mathis had seven kills with a .500 hitting percentage while Alexander landed six kills on nine attacks with no errors for a team-high .667 hitting percentage. Chandler Gow led the way with 32 assists, marking her 11 straight match with at least 30 assists. Ayssa Garcia recorded 21 digs.
Tarleton will continue towards the southern border as the TexAnns will head to Kingsville for a 2 p.m. match Saturday afternoon at the Steinke Center against Texas A&M-Kingsville in a Lone Star Conference contest.
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