HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkat volleyball team had its 3-match win streak come to an end on Thursday night at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum, falling 3-1 to league-leading UTRGV.
Catherine Krieger had 15 kills and hit over .300 for the fourth straight match, but the Kats (6-13, 3-2 WAC) only hit .188 for the match and were haunted by a rough night at the service line. In all the Kats finished with nine service errors – five coming in Set 1 – and were edged 7-1 in service aces by UTRGV (16-4, 5-0 WAC).
The Kats will look to get back in the win column on Saturday when they host NM State at 1:00 p.m.
Sam Houston got a double-double with 14 kills and 12 digs from
Alyssa Fielder, and both
McKenzie Morvant and
Madison Dyer had five blocks apiece.
Hannah Baker led the back line with 19 digs, while
Avery Fowler had 24 assists.
For UTRGV, Sarah Cruz led the way with 16 kills as one of three Vaqueros in double figures.
The Kats were able to work around their service woes in Set 1 with a 7-2 run that gave them a 19-17 lead. A few points later, a kill from
Hailey Heider had Sam Houston on the verge of a 1-0 advantage before UTRGV went to Cruz for consecutive scores before closing out a 26-24 win with two straight Bearkat miscues.
One set later the Vaqueros cruised their way to a 2-0 lead with a convincing 25-16 behind .333 hitting as a team, but Set 3 belonged to the Kats after a strong late surge. Krieger snapped a 21-21 tie with a score, but it was a kill from Fielder before a block from Heider and Dyer that did the trick to get the Kats back in the match.
But the Kats ran out of gas midway through the fourth set as UTRGV closed out the match on a 9-2 run.
