The Mustangs volleyball team saw a double vision of victory during the weekend, with wins against Incarnate Word and Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Thursday night, MSU took on the Lady Cardinals of Incarnate Word and celebrated a stunning comeback. The Mustangs took a win on the home court, 3-2, a five set win, 22-25, 21-25, 25-18, 25-21, 16-14.
The Mustangs struggled in the first two sets, but ultimately took the Lone Star Conference win.
Although the Mustangs opened the scoring, Incarnate Word did not only dominate the set but also recorded the most consecutive points. UIW Stephanie Bonura ended the first set with a kill from Danielle Suarez. According to Head Volleyball Coach Venera Flores-Stafford, Shelby Stewart and Miranda Byrd were key players in Thursday night’s comeback.
“They found a way to put the ball away even with Incarnate Word’s good defense,” she said.
Just like Flores-Stafford said, they really did flourish a great game. Stewart recorded 21 kills and four blocks while Byrd notched a total 19 kills and 5 blocks Thurday night.
Stewart and Byrd combined for a total of 27 kills, while Stewart brought forth her ninth double-double with a small commitment of three errors for a .450 attack percentage.
Both girls helped tremendously as MSU battled back from a 10-6 deficit in the last set, combining for seven of their many kills.
Byrd individually had a season-high of 19 kills during the match.
The Lady Cardinals pushed MSU into 18 attack errors and left them with a .048 team hit percentage.
Lady Cardinal Lydia Werchan led her team with 28 digs.
Kiara Jordan paced the back line for the Mustangs and limited UIW to a .126 hitting percentage, while also posting up her third career 40-dig performance, while Hillary White added 21 digs along with eight kills.
Brandi Flores pitched in 13 digs and Kristan Aduddell contributed 31 assists and 10 digs to complete a double-double in her college performance.
Saturday, the Mustangs took on Texas A&M-Kingsville to take down the Lady Javelinas during their homecoming feat, 3-0 in three sets, 25-19, 25-10, 31-29.
The victory marks the third consecutive Lone Star Conference win for MSU who are 15-9 in season play, and 7-8 in LSC.
The win might have been vengeance brought forth by the loss to TAMUK earlier in the season.
The Mustangs took a .347 season high attack percentage with Caitlin Wallace leading the team with 11 kills without a single error for a .611 kill rate.
Byrd left in the last set due to injury, but before she did, she laid down 10 kills with a single error for a .600 kill rate.
Kasey Decker made her season high of seven kills to pick up the slack after Byrd’s departure, while White gave six kills and six digs.
Aduddell put in 22 assists while Kimberly Jeffrey marked 20. Jordan led the back row with 18 digs, while the Mustangs limited TAMUK to a .163 team attack percentage.
Next, MSU takes on Dallas Baptist this Thursday on home court, first serve is set for 7 p.m.