Volleyball Suffers Disappointing Loss to UTPB

Box Score LAREDO, Texas – After starting out to a dominant 2-0 set lead, the TAMIU volleyball team went into a tailspin losing three straight, as UT-Permian Basin stole a five set win Saturday afternoon 25-17, 25-22, 17-25, 24-26, and 11-15 at the TAMIU KCB.

“They started to pass our serves a lot better and that took us out of our game,” said senior Jacquelynne Matula. “They were stronger mentally and once they started to elevate their game our mistakes began to build up and spread to other positions.”

Errors continued to hamper the Dustdevils who hit only .163 for the match. They finished with 30 total errors, marking their second straight match with at least 30. Andrea Marshall led TAMIU with 22 kills and 12 digs, while Daria Winckler racked up a game high 50 assists. Alex Ciszek also recorded a double-double, adding 17 kills and 17 digs.

The loss drops the Dustdevils conference record to 4-5, a half-game behind the Falcons for the fourth and final playoff spot in the upcoming Heartland Conference Tournament. The silver lining for TAMIU is that the Dustdevils still hold the tiebreaker over both St. Mary’s (4-5 HC) and UTPB (5-5 HC), having swept the season series over the Rattlers and having beaten the Falcons in four sets on the road in earlier this season.

Matula said that although the team has been playing better as of late, there are still issues that need to be worked out as the season reaches its climax.

“In the games that we’ve lost, we’ve had trouble coming together as a team and staying mentally strong. Sometimes we tend to turn on each other instead of turning to each other. We’re dwelling too much on our mistakes and if we want to be successful we need to be able to keep our heads up and move on.”

TAMIU will step out of conference play for their next match, hosting Huston-Tillotson on October 23. They return to their conference schedule on October 26 with a home showdown versus Oklahoma Panhandle State.

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