The Bobcats sweep the UIW Cardinals

Sarah Bergen

KTSW Sports Reporter

SAN MARCOS, Texas—The Texas State Bobcats rounded out their weekend invitational with a win against the University of Incarnate Word Cardinals Saturday evening at Strahan Arena. The game finished after the Bobcats scored their match point in the third set of the game.

Before the game, Head Coach Sean Huiet switched up the starting six with two Bobcats playing for the first time this season.

“We wanted to give some young kids some shot and just let them go play. And I think you saw that once we figure it all out, we’re going to be really good because we have a lot of depth. And so it was fun to see the young kids get out there and compete” said Head Coach Sean Huiet.

The first set was very back-and-forth but the Bobcats took the first set 26-24. Caelyn Emmerling lead the team in kills with 6 in her first game of the season after the end of the first.

The game continued to the close, but the Bobcats struck again, taking the second set 25-23. This set was tied multiple times with many lead changes, but freshman Adison Ozuna had four kills that helped solidify the Bobcats victory. By this point in the game, Texas State was ahead of Incarnate Word in attacks 104-96.

The game was wrapped up in the third set with the Bobcats taking the victory by their largest margin of the game 25-21 when Ally Adair made the final kill of the match.

“One of the things we’ve been really, really stressing is we want to be hard to score on, and I thought our defense was really, really good tonight to dig 76 balls in a match. A three-set match is big time, so really proud of how we bounced back today to get back on the winning way” said Huiet.

The Bobcats finish their non-conference slate next weekend when they head to California for the Stanford Invitational Sept. 19-21.

“We want people to know our style of volleyball from how we play, not by who we’re playing. And so they wanted the challenge, you know, they want to be ready for conference. And so next weekend’s going to be one step closer to get us closer to conference, but to see that level of volleyball every day” said Huiet.

The Bobcats first conference game is Sept. 26 at home against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns.