STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton State continued its winning ways with a four-set, in-region match victory over the Dallas Baptist Patriots in front of the Wisdom Gym faithful Tuesday night.
After dropping the third set, the TexAnns rebounded to take set No. 4 and earn their second four-set win of the season, joining only the season-opening win against Arkansas Fort-Smith and snapping a string of 15 straight games of three or five sets.
The teams were tightly contested through the first 21 points as the TexAnns held a slim 11-10 advantage, but a block from
Kelsey Raglin swung the momentum into Tarleton's favor as that block was the first point of a 14-3 TexAnn run to earn a 25-13 win in the opening set.
Tarleton's dominance continued in the ensuing set as
Kaitlyn White struck for the first point and then served up the next two for a 3-0 start. The TexAnns would ultimately stretch it to as much as 7-1 and keep the six-point advantage through 15-9.
Again, the TexAnns dominated down the stretch by ending the set on a 10-4 run with
Chandler Gow sealing the game with back-to-back service aces for the final two points.
Out of the break, Tarleton was forced to play from behind and ultimately got down 19-24 before making a valiant comeback attempt – getting as close as 23-24 before a Patriot kill forced the fourth set.
The Patriots carried the momentum into the early stages of the fourth set and led the TexAnns 11-9 before a kill from
Ashley Rine shifted the momentum back to Tarleton at 10-11. The Rine kill was the first of six straight points for Tarleton to take a 15-11 lead.
After Dallas Baptist pulled within three at 18-15, the TexAnns pulled away by taking seven of the final eight points – with the only Dallas Baptist point coming on a Tarleton error – to secure the set 25-16 and the match 3-1.
Kenya Alexander and
Kelsey Raglin ended the match with an exclamation point by blocking the Patriot kill shot straight down for the win.
Tarleton hit .254 as a team while holding the Patriots to just a .040 hitting percentage, including individual set percentages of .522 in the first set and .308 in the fourth set.
Roberts led the team with 15 kills while White and Rine each tallied 11 kills on a .556 and .562 hitting percentage, respectively. White added 13 kills for her fourth double-double of the season and a career-high three service aces.
The TexAnn setter tandem of
Emily Medlin (25) and
Chandler Gow (20) combined for 45 assists while
Katie Covell led the team with 21 digs.
Tarleton State will be on the road this weekend as they begin the second round of Lone Star Conference play, beginning Friday night in Commerce at 7 p.m. against the Lions. They'll head over to Denton Saturday for a 2 p.m. match against Texas Woman's.
