TXST Release:
SAN MARCOS, TX — Prior to this weekend, Texas State and Southern Miss’s volleyball programs had never met on a volleyball court. Two days later, the Golden Eagles are heading back to Hattiesburg, Miss., now knowing who Janell Fitzgerald is, especially after the Bobcats’ four-set win Saturday afternoon.
With Emily DeWalt directing a Texas State offense that concluded Saturday’s action with a .368 attack percentage, it was Fitzgerald who took full opportunity to DeWalt’s sets as the reigning conference preseason offensive player of the year posted a season-high 25 kills on a .375 attack percentage. She added two block assists to her stat line to finished with a match-leading 26.0 points.
By the time Texas State put a lid on the first set, Fitzgerald had already totaled nine kills and zero attack errors on just 11 total attacks for an .818 attack percentage. She was up to 19 kills and a .400 attack percentage well before the end of the third set.
Fitzgerald’s offensive performance against Southern Miss on Saturday marked the second time this season she finished a match with 20-or-more kills after posting 21 in a four-set win at TCU on Sept. 17, 2022. The 25 kills versus the Golden Eagles were the most by Fitzgerald since posting a career-high 30 kills at Arkansas State on Nov. 7, 2020.
FROM HEAD COACH SEAN HUIET
“I was really proud of our resiliency today. We know Southern Miss is a really good team and we know Mia (Wesley) is one of the best offensive players in the country. We knew they were going to come back (from last night’s match) with something different. We know we aren’t going to sweep everyone, but the way our team came back and battled after that second set was nice to see. How we regrouped (after that second set), it just showed the confidence of the team and showed the maturity of this team. I thought we did a really great job during those third and fourth sets. It was really nice to see everyone bounce back during those sets and put the stamp on the match.”
FROM LIBERO JACQUELINE LEE
“I feel like we were doing a really good job of setting up our blocks. Our blocks were getting a lot of touches. Yesterday, they were phenomenal and today, they were great as well. We were just trying to be gritting on defense, honestly. It was something we were trying to work on a lot in practice this week. We didn’t want the ball to hit the floor today.”
STAT LEADERS
- Kills – Janell Fitzgerald (25)
- Assists – Emily DeWalt (48)
- Service Aces – Lauren Teske, Emily DeWalt, Courtney Heiser, Jacqueline Lee (1)
- Blocks – Lauren Teske (4.0)
- Digs – Lauren Teske (16)
SCORES BY SET
- 1st | Texas State 25, Southern Miss 18
- 2nd | Southern Miss 25, Texas State 18
- 3rd | Texas State 25, Southern Miss 16
- 4th | Texas State 25, Southern Miss 16
MATCH NOTES
- Saturday afternoon’s match provided a lot of different opportunities for Texas State’s Emily DeWalt, but the 23-time Sun Belt Setter of the Week took advantage of the Southern Miss defense as the graduate student matched her career high with nine kills. It’s the first time DeWalt has reached that number since March 4, 2021, when the Bobcats won in Kansas State in five sets.
- While Lauren Teske has dominated the offensive aspect of Texas State volleyball matches over the last three matches, the redshirt-senior outside hitter turned in a third consecutive quality defensive effort Saturday afternoon by matching her career high with 16 digs against the Golden Eagles. It’s the first time Teske has reached the 16-dig plateau playing Cincinnati on Aug. 27, 2021.
- Speaking of Teske, the Schertz, Texas native has doubled her career double-double total over the last three Texas State volleyball matches. Prior to last Saturday’s four-set win at Louisiana, Teske had only three career double-doubles. Combing her performance against the Ragin’ Cajuns on that day and this weekend’s two matches against Southern Miss, Teske will travel to Mobile, Ala., for next week’s two-match series at South Alabama with six career double-doubles.
- And, on the talk of double-doubles, sophomore libero Jacqueline finished one assist shy of her first career double-double as The Woodlands native finished Saturday’s four-set match with 19 digs and nine assists. Both of those statistics were career highs for Lee.
- While dominating Saturday’s match from the setter position, Emily DeWalt nearly finished with a triple-double as the four-time Sun Belt Setter of the Year posted a 48-assist, 9-kill and 7-dig stat line against the Golden Eagles.
UP NEXT
- Texas State (15-5, 7-1) will travel to the Yellowhammer State for a two-match series at South Alabama (13-7, 7-1) beginning at 6 PM CT on Friday, Oct. 21. The Jaguars are currently on a six-match winning streak following a two-match sweep against Louisiana over the weekend.
- Texas State and South Alabama last met in last season’s Sun Belt Conference Championship match in Foley, Ala., with the Jaguars snapping the Bobcats’ streak of three consecutive conference championships with a three-set win.
Friday, October 14
Bobcat Volleyball Open Series with a Sweep
SAN MARCOS, TX — When a team is playing an opponent for the first time, there can be a lot of unknowns and mysteries. But, during Texas State’s three-set victory against Southern Miss on Friday night, there were no secrets about what the Golden Eagles were going to do.
Coming into the weekend, Mia Wesley’s name was either at or near the top of numerous offensive categories among Sun Belt student-athletes. The Southern Miss outside hitter is averaging just under five kills per set (4.90) so far this season, which is 0.66 percent higher than the next closest student-athlete in the league, Troy’s Tori Hester at 4.24.
The Texas State volleyball coaching staff knew the Golden Eagle offense was going to flow through the Orem, Utah native Friday night. And it did.
Of Southern Miss’ 121 total attacks throughout the three sets, Wesley accounted for 48, or 36.7 percent. Cara Atkinson and Cailin Demps were the next closest Golden Eagle to Wesley’s total. And the duo recorded 14 attacks each. Of Southern Miss’ 37 kills, Wesley was credited with 11. Demps was the next closest at eight.
But it was the difference in the number of kills and total attacks that played for Texas State’s advantage Friday night.
As Wesley finished with 11 kills and three attack errors on 48 total attacks — for a .167 attack percentage — Texas State capitalized, defensively, with 61 digs. The most by the Bobcats in a three-set match so far this season. The ability to dig Wesley’s attacks allowed the Bobcat offense to get going as Emily DeWalt, who was named the league’s setter of the week for the 23rd career time three days earlier, turned 39 of those digs into assists and Lauren Teske (14) and Janell Fitzgerald (13) both finished with double-figure kills.
FROM HEAD COACH SEAN HUIET
“I thought that was a fun win. We’ve been telling our team we like where we are at. We are in a great spot. We are trending up and playing really, really consistent, while battling some injuries, but the best part is that we have kids who step up every night. I thought that was a really good win against a really good team.”
FROM OUTSIDE HITTER LAUREN TESKE
“I just think we knew our serving game was off, and so we were going to have to defend really well, which is a big thing when another team has a really good offensive player. We were going to have to know where (Mia Wesley) was on the court at all times. She was really active on the backrow, too, so we just had to know where she was at all times and just get really gritty with defense. And I thought we did that tonight. There were a lot of long rallies we could’ve given up during, but we stuck those out. We knew it was going to be a fight and we were prepared for it.”
STATS LEADER
- Kills – Lauren Teske (14)
- Assists – Emily DeWalt (39)
- Service Aces – Emily DeWalt, Janell Fitzgerald, Lauren Teske (1)
- Blocks – Janell Fitzgerald, Courtney Heiser (2.0)
- Digs – Emily DeWalt (17)
SCORES BY SET
- 1st | Texas State 25, Southern Miss 21
- 2nd | Texas State 25, Southern Miss 18
- 3rd | Texas State 25, Southern Miss 23
MATCH NOTES
- The announced attendance of 1,330 for Friday night’s match was a season high for the Texas State volleyball program, surpassing the previous mark of 1,237 set against Ole Miss on Sept. 10, 2022. Friday night marked the fourth overall time — and second time against a conference opponent — this season 1,000-or-more fans have paid to watch the Bobcats play a volleyball match.
- By appearing in tonight’s match, Emily DeWalt surpassed the 150 career matches played milestone, becoming the fourth Texas State volleyball student-athlete to accomplish the feat joining Tyeranee Scott (2017-21), Brooke Johnson (2017-21) and Janell Fitzgerald (2018-P). The quartet of Bobcat student-athletes are the only student-athletes in Sun Belt history to reach the 150 career matches played plateau.
- With Friday night’s victory, Texas State’s third-year head coach Sean Huiet won his 65th career match. Of those 65 victories, 35 have now happened against Sun Belt opponents during the regular season. Texas State’s three-set win over Southern Miss Friday night marked the program’s 130th victory in Sun Belt action.
- Friday night’s win was the first-ever victory for Texas State over Southern Miss, which joined the Sun Belt Conference prior to the start of the 2022-23 athletic year. Prior to this weekend, the two volleyball programs have never met on the court.
- On the heels of Emily DeWalt and Lauren Teske’s double-doubles against the Golden Eagles Friday night, the Texas State volleyball program has now had multiple student-athletes record double-doubles in back-to-back matches for the second time this season. Earlier this season, DeWalt (assists, digs) and Janell Fitzgerald (kills, digs) went for double-doubles against Wake Forest, before DeWalt (assists, digs) and Caitlan Buettner (kills, digs) did so against Abilene Christian. Last Saturday, DeWalt (assists, digs), Teske (kills, digs) and Fitzgerald (kills, digs) all recorded double-doubles at Louisiana and Friday night, DeWalt (assists, digs) and Teske (kills, digs) made it back-to-back.
