Texas State Volleyball Team Falls Short in NCAA Tournament

By Thomas Terry

KTSW Sports Reporter

AUSTIN, Texas—Last Thursday marked the end of the Texas State Bobcats Volleyball season, as they dropped three straight sets to the SMU Mustangs in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. 

Despite coming up short in the Sun Belt Tournament, Texas State was able to make the dance on the national stage, traveling to Gregory Gym to face the SMU Mustangs. The Mustangs had a 25-6 record coming into the matchup and earned their second overall tournament victory in program history. 

The first set was close in the beginning as the Bobcats and Mustangs traded blows, however a 7-0 scoring run gave the Mustangs a 14-6 lead. The Mustangs would go on to ultimately win the first set 25-20. 

After the Mustangs committed back-to-back service errors in the second set, they were able to score four straight points- knocking the Bobcats off their stride and taking their momentum. At the 22-14 mark, the Bobcats looked as if they were going to complete the rally as they scored four straight to cut the deficit to four (22-18), though two kills from Naya Shime and an attack error from KJ Johnson shut the door on any comeback opportunities. 

In the third set the Mustangs got out to a hot start- quickly taking a 14-4 lead. Service errors had been a problem all night for the Bobcats and ultimately cost them the final set as well. The Bobcats went on to lose that set 25-16 and that would also end their storied season. Samantha Wunsch led all Bobcats with 10 kills in the match, followed by Bailey Hanner with 6 and KJ Johnson with 5. 

Head Coach Sean Huiet addressed the media after the game. 

“A little frustrated tonight”, Huiet said. “I didn’t think that was our best performance. When you play someone like SMU you have to bring your best. That is not who we are, that is not how our season has been. We just were not ourselves tonight and that is what the outcome shows.” 

The Bobcats will look to build off of this season as they will likely return 14 players. They will look to do so without their kill-leader KJ Johnson and seniors Ryan Torres and Megan Woods.