PHOENIX, Ariz – The Sam Houston volleyball team rebounded from a tough loss on Thursday to take down New Mexico State in four sets on Friday night at GCU Arena on the second day of the Phoenix Pod.
The Kats (12-7, 5-2 WAC) were at their best against the Aggies (15-6, 6-3 WAC), a program who has won five of the last six WAC titles and was picked as the favorite to take the league crown this season.
Sam Houston hit .285 for the match, its highest percentage since hitting .299 in a win over San Diego State on the opening day of the season. That was bolstered by double-figure kill efforts by the Kats' trio of primary hitters –
Ashley Lewis,
Breanne Chausse and
Catherine Krieger.
Krieger finished with a team-best 13 kills, while both Lewis and Chausse finished with double-doubles, Lewis with 12 kills and 12 digs and Chausse with 11 kills and a career-high 18 digs.
For Krieger, her night was almost pinpoint, only committing a pair of errors on just 23 swings to hit .478 from her pin spot. Setter
Morgan Janda directed things throughout, doling out 41 assists to go with eight digs and a pair of blocks.
De'Janae Gilmore had six scores and a pair of blocks, while
McKenzie Morvant provided big play at the net, especially in the final two sets. The Deer Park native did not commit an error on 20 tries, finishing with eight kills and a team-high four blocks.
Hannah Baker and
Madeline McKinney each finished with 10 digs.
Sam Houston hit on all cylinders in Set 1, connecting on 16 of its 37 attempts for kills (.378) to race out to a 1-0 lead, getting 14 assists from Janda in the 25-18 win. But Set 2 was not as kind as NM State got out to a 14-5 lead and never looked back, hitting .419 on their way to a 25-13 win to even the match.
The Kats got back on track in the third set, following Krieger's six kills to a 25-21 win to take a 2-1 advantage into Set 4. They carried that over into the last set, breaking open a 10-10 set with a 7-1 run that put the up 17-11.
NM State got as close as 19-16 on a kill from Katie Birtcil, who tied for team-high honors with 16 kills, but was never able to get the deficit any lower. The Kats finished with a .241 attack percentage in Set 4 while holding the Aggies to .051, finishing on a 6-1 run.
The Kats will close out the Phoenix Pod on Saturday at 4PM CT with a match vs Utah Valley. The match will be streamed on the WAC Digital Network.
