Kayee Hawkins, playing on her birthday, totaled 13 kills with only three errors in 22 attempts to lead Sam Houston to a quick three-set victory over Texas Southern in a non-conference volleyball match at Johnson Coliseum.
The Bearkats out-pointed the Tigers 64 to 24 in the three sets, finishing off the match in an hour and nine minutes with a score of 25-9 25-17 25-17.
Kierra Whittaker led TSU with four kills.
Carli Kolbe totaled nine kills and Kellie Stewart had eight. The Bearkats totaled 18 service aces with Taylor Gray and Kim Black both leading the squad with five apiece.
"Game one was very crisp," head coach Brenda Gray said of the first set in which Sam Houston totaled nine aces and zoomed past the Tigers in about 12 minutes. "The second set we wanted to try some new stuff. These girls work hard and we wanted to see some other people in other positions. It's different when you put other people out there."
Texas Southern picked up its level of play, jumping out to a 9-5 lead in the second set. Sam Houston bounced back to win seven of the next eight points to take a 12-10 lead. The Kats rolled the rest of the way.
"We kid of started making a lot of errors in the second set," Hawkins said. "The first set was a breeze. But we let up too much in the second. You should never really let up but we did a little. We started letting them play with us and we had some errors. It's something we will learn from."
Sam Houston heads to Corpus Christi to play in the Islander Classic this weekend. In Corpus, the Kats will have the opportunity to face Texas Southern again as the Tigers joined the A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders and Villanova in the field.
The next weekend, Sam Houston heads to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl Classic hosted by Tulane.
Next home action for the Bearkats is Sept. 30 when A&M-Corpus Christi visits Huntsville for a Southland Conference match.
Volleyball tickets are on sale online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the SHSU Ticket Office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium. Ticket office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket office telephone number is 936 294-1729.
