CHICAGO – The Texans came to compete against Chicago State and absolutely dominated in their three-set match win at the Jacoby Dickens Center.
 
Tarleton found their stride early defeating the Cougars 25-19, 25-22, and 25-16. Although this week's games against the Cougars don't count towards the Texans conference record the team is on a four-game win streak and have won 12 of their last 14 sets.
 
Lauren Kersey had herself a game with a dominating 17 kills leading all players on both teams and surpassing her previous season high. Kayla Brannon paced the offense with 32 assists and recorded her fifth double-double of the season adding 11 digs on the night.
 
Pushing the Cougars the whole match, the Texans never trailed by more than one point the entire time.
 
Getting ahead early in match one, Chicago State battled it out and tied up the match three different times before the Texans took over on a 3-0 scoring run when the match was tied at 11. After a media timeout when the Texans hit the 15-point mark, Chicago State and Tarleton went point for point until the Texans pulled away on a 5-1 scoring run and defeated the Cougars.
 
The Texans had six straight points go their way in set two, but the Cougars didn't give up without a fight pushing the closest set of the match after going on a few three-point runs themselves. Late in the set kills by Lorin McNeil, Lauren Kersey, and Carmen Kinsey pushed the Texans to the win in set two.
 
After putting up a 2-0 match lead the Texans worked to close it out quick in set three. Recording their biggest lead on the match 22-12 the set and match win was closed out by a set of kills from Kersey who had her best match of the season tonight.
 
Other prominent Texans were Hali'a Swartman-Hogan and Carmen Kinsey who each had 8 and 7 kills respectively and recorded 5 digs between the two of them. Ana Costas had a team high 14 digs and Lorin McNeil and Brianna Rhodes combined for 5 total blocks.
 
The Texans face off against the Cougars of Chicago State again tomorrow for match two of their two-game matchup. Tomorrows first serve is slated for 1 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on the WAC Digital Network again.