Sam Houston State defeated Jackson State 25-19 25-13 26-24 for the Bearkats' second victory in the SHSU Volleyball Invitational Saturday afternoon.

The game marked Bearkat head coach Brenda Gray's 600th career victory, moving her into a group of only 26 individuals with 600 or more coaching wins at the NCAA Division I level.

Deveney Wells-Gibson produced a season high 20 kills in 41 attempts to lead a Bearkat offense that produced 58 points. Haley Neisler added 10 kills.

“All the credit for 600 wins goes to all the great young women that have played for Sam Houston State in the last 30 years,” Gray said. “With this young group this year, we're just trying to get better every match.”

Jackson State, now 1-8 for the year, held only a couple of early leads in the first set and SHSU never trailed in the second frame. But the Kats had to work for the three-setter as the Tigers held leads four times including a 18-17 margin. Wells-Gibson picked up the final to points to move SHSU to 4-5 for the year.

Sam Houston threw a scare into tournament champion Washington State in the third set of the final match. The Cougars won 25-15 25-14 25-21. But the Kats were up 14-5 in the third frame.

Washington State roared back, winning 9 of the next 11 points to tie the set 16-16.

Wells-Gibson led the Bearkat offense in the Washington State match with 11 kills.

Tournament MVP Kyra Holt led WSU with 12 kills. The Cougars totaled 13 team blocks as they out-pointed SHSU 62 to 34.

Sam Houston's Tayler Gray and Breanna Homer were selected to the All-Tournament team.

Other members were Holt, Ver'Leea Hardaway and Marcelina Glab of WSU, Megan Schwartz of Lamar and Tamisha Barry of Jackson State.