SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Michelle Griffith picked up a double-double and directed the Sam Houston State Bearkats to .206 hitting as the Kats won their third straight match, 3-1 (27-25, 19-25, 25-15, 25-20) over Incarnate Word on Thursday night at the McDermott Convocation Center.
Jordyn Vaughn delivered 16 kills while Griffith finished with 46 assists and 12 digs as one of three Bearkats (9-9, 3-2 SLC) with at least a dozen digs. Brooke White delivered 15 kills and Taylor Cunningham 12 of her own, while Sarah Sherman had five blocks. Addison Miller continued to play well on the back line, totaling 18 digs while Breanna Homer had 14.
The Kats evened their conference record with the win and will now turn their attention to Saturday when they take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Dugan Wellness Center.
SET 1
The Bearkats got three kills from Vaughn and Taylor Cunningham and held UIW to just .143 hitting to take a 1-0 lead. Sam Houston held a 23-20 lead late in the set, but the Cardinals responded with five of the next six points, forcing extra points and drawing a set-point try of their own. But the Kats forced a pair of attack errors before Griffith found Amanda Gooch for a score to end the set.
SET 2
UIW responded in the second set to even the score, putting together its best set of the night with .333 hitting and holding the Kats to just .095 attacking. SHSU scored the first four points of the set, but the Cardinals came back to score 10 of the next 12 to take the lead and never surrendered the advantage.
SET 3
Sam Houston started fast out of the halftime break again and this time did not let up. The Kats opened up a quick 5-1 lead with points from Sherman and Gooch, while forcing three UIW misfires and eventually ballooned the lead to 21-10 with an 11-3 run before cruising to the finish line. Sam Houston forced seven Cardinal attack errors on the set while scoring a dozen kills of its own.
SET 4
The Kats put together their best offensive set of the night in the fourth, hitting .351 with a match-high 19 kills to close things out. Sam Houston gave itself some breathing room at 14-10 after a 7-3 run and got itself to a match-point try on Vaughn's final kill of the evening before forcing a UIW attack error to close out the match.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH
Gooch connected with 10 scores on 19 swings for the night without an attack error, hitting .526 in the match. She also got a hand in on five of SHSU's seven blocks on the night.
KEY STAT
UIW owned the net with a 15-7 advantage in blocks, but Sam Houston took the match into its own hands offensively otherwise. The Kats outkilled the Cardinals 61-45 on the night with four players finishing with at least 10 kills.
