KINGSVILLE – Tarleton (20-7, 13-4) dropped its second straight game Friday night with a four-set loss at Texas A&M-Kingsville (15-11, 7-9).
 
This is just the second two-game losing streak of the season for Tarleton, dating back to early September.
 
Kingsville jumped out to an early lead in the opening set with a 5-0 run to take a 6-2 lead. Tarleton clawed back to within 13-12, but the Javelinas responded with four straight points to push their lead back to five at 17-12.
 
The TexAnns got within three points on two different occasions but could not take the lead as Kingsville went on to win the first set 25-21.
 
In the second set, Tarleton used a 5-0 run and a 4-0 run to create a big lead.
 
After the teams traded the first 12 points to a 6-6 tie, a Javelina service error gave the TexAnns the lead and the serve at 7-6. Tarleton then added four more points on a kill by Danielle Barker, an error, an Emily Klein service ace and a block by Nikki McNorton and Barker to lead 11-6.
 
A Javelina kill broke up the two big TexAnn runs as immediately after Klein's 5-0 service run, Barker served up the 4-0 run on the strength of an error and kills by Jazmine Green, Stacie Murrah and McNorton.
 
Tarleton cruised to the second-set victory 25-19.
 
In the third set, Kingsville took an early lead but the TexAnns battled to keep it tied over the first 10 points but the Javelinas then struck for a 10-4 run to lead 15-9. The TexAnns couldn't string together more than three points over the rest of the match and fell 25-19.
 
In the final set, Tarleton battled to a 15-13 lead midway through the set but the Javelinas put together a 6-0 run to regain control at 19-15. Despite tying the score at 20-20 and cutting the deficit to one at 22-21, Tarleton couldn't retake the lead and fell 25-22.
 
The only game in which Tarleton successfully hit over .200-percent was the second game when they landed .375. Meanwhile, Kingsville successfully hit over .200-percent in every game.
 
McNorton led the team with 15 kills and a .448 hitting percentage while Katie Covell added a double-double with 13 kills and 15 digs. Green added nine kills.
 
With a team-high 30 digs on the night, Klein moved into third place on the Tarleton single-season digs list with 498 on the season. She passed Kim Franklin and Shea McBrearty and is just 17 digs shy of passing McBrearty for the all-time lead in digs in a season.
 
Barker recorded 38 assists – to go along with 11 digs – to bring her 37 assists shy of fifth place on the single-season record list. McNorton added four assisted blocks to inch toward a top-five spot in that category as well.
 
Tarleton will visit Incarnate Word at 2 p.m. Saturday in an attempt to put an end to this current two-game skid.