Texas State Coach Karen Chisum Wins 700th Career Match
Texas State 3, Prairie View A&M 0
SAN MARCOS, Texas - Chants of "700"
filled Strahan Coliseum in the waning moments of Tuesday evening's match
between Texas State and Prairie View A&M as volleyball head coach Karen
Chisum reached yet another milestone during her storied career.
A kill by senior Shelbi Irvin put
the finishing touches on the victory that was the 700th of Chisum's career. She
joins just six other active NCAA Division I head coaches with 700 career wins
as her all-time record now stands at 700-451-3.
"There have been a lot of people
involved in those 700 wins," Chisum said. "That's what means the world to me. I
love Texas State, and I love these kids. They've been the ones who've done it."
Just four days shy of exactly 30
years since Chisum's first win, which came against UTEP on September 11, 1980,
the victory puts Chisum in elite company in the coaching profession. It also
allows her and the Bobcats to focus their attention on their ultimate goal this
season - winning another Southland Conference championship.
"I'm glad it's done, and I'm glad
it's over," Chisum said. "Now we can move on and think about winning the
conference."
The Bobcats never lost focus of
their goal of delivering number 700 in front of the hometown fans on Tuesday
night as they convincingly beat the Lady Panthers, 3-0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-6).
Texas State snaps its three-game losing streak and improves to 3-4 overall,
while Prairie View A&M drops to 1-6 this season.
Texas State hit a season-high .455
for the match as the offense clicked all night behind the setting of Irvin and
sophomore Caleigh McCorquodale. Freshman Preslie Alexander led the way for the
Bobcats offensively, posting 12 kills and a .550 hitting percentage.
The Bobcats dominated the center of
the court all night as three Texas State middle blockers hit at a .500 clip or
better. Freshman Ashlee Hilbun hit .667 with six kills, while junior Amber
Calhoun tallied seven kills on 14 swings without an error for a .500 hitting
percentage. Freshman Madeline Gaffney also chipped in with three kills and a
.500 percentage.
Things went the Bobcats way from
the opening serve when Irvin's ace gave the 833 fans at Strahan Coliseum reason
to cheer. Texas State trailed just once in the match, that being in the third
set when Prairie View A&M held a 1-0 advantage before Hilbun's kill and two
points on the serve of freshman Erica Dryden put the Bobcats ahead.
The final 11 points of the match
were all scored by Texas State as the team limited the Lady Panthers to just
six points in the third set.
But the story of the night was the
milestone win for Chisum.
"It was good that we got to
celebrate her 700th win here at home," Irvin said. "It's awesome to be a part
of such a good legacy."
Coach Chisum and the Bobcats will
look to move toward her next milestone win this weekend when they host the
CenturyLink Premier at Strahan Coliseum. Play begins Friday morning at 10 a.m.
with Alabama taking on North Texas before the Bobcats take the floor at noon
against Tennessee-Martin.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 3, Texas-Pan American 0
EDINBURG, Texas - The Texas
A&M-Corpus Christi volleyball team started out fast and cruised to a
dominate 3-0 (25-14, 25-10, 25-18) win over Texas-Pan American in the first
midweek match of the season for the team.
The
Islanders moved to 4-4 on the season with the win as they get ready to host the
Holiday Inn Emerald Beach Islanders Classic on Friday and Saturday at the Dugan
Wellness Center. The Broncs are now 1-7 on the season after the Tuesday
night match.
"This was
our cleanest match of the season by far," said head coach Tony Graystone. "It
seemed like everything we did was working.
"We got off
to a good start in game one and just rolled from there."
Isabella
Arcidiacono once again played well for the Islanders as she totaled 11 kills in
the match to lead the team while having a .292 hitting percentage.
Arcidiacono also added the only block solo for the Islanders against the
Broncs. Brooke Alverson and Emma Ridley were close behind with eight
kills. Alverson collected her eight kills in just 11 attempts with no
errors for a remarkable .727 hitting percentage. Ridley had 13 attempts
and recorded a .538 hitting percentage.
"That has
been something we have been working on, to not make so many unforced errors,"
said Graystone. "Tonight the girls had a better idea of where they wanted to
put the ball and were more aggressive.
"It seemed
like everything was working tonight."
Set one
started out with a 3-3 tie early on before the Islanders took an 11-6 lead.
The Broncs came back to get as close as 11-10 before the Islanders ran away
with the opener, outscoring UTPA 14-4 the rest of the way, including scoring
nine of the final 10 points of the set. The score was 23-14 when Alverson
and Ridley finished the Broncs off with back-to-back kills for a 25-13 set
victory.
The second
set was even better for the Islanders as the raced out to a 10-2
advantage. The lead reached 10 points at 17-7 and ended up 15 when the
Islanders led 23-10 and scored the final two points on a kill from Alverson and
a UTPA attack error. The Islanders had 14 kills and a match high .417
hitting percentage in the second set.
The final
set saw the Broncs put up a better fight but still buckle under the pressure of
the Islanders attack. The team took an 11-4 advantage and coasted to the
victory. The Broncs made the match close several times and whittled the
lead to as few as four points, but UTPA was never able to overcome the initial
damage as the Islanders pounded out 15 kills and a .314 hitting percentage.
For the
match, the Islanders had a season-high .365 hitting percentage and recorded 41
kills in the three-set match. Micah Nolan recorded a team-high three
service aces while there were eight total from the team. Logen Bourque
added 30 assists to her season total and had six digs in the match.
Ridley led the team with nine digs while Nolan was close behind with eight in
the match.
Next up for
the Islanders is a 2:00 p.m. match against Sam Houston State on Friday in the
first day of the Islanders Classic. The team will also play Texas
Southern at 7:00 p.m. on Friday night. On the second day of the
tournament, the Islanders will play Houston Baptist at 1:00 p.m. and finish
tournament play with a 7:00 p.m. tilt against Villanova.
"Sam Houston
is one of the better teams in the Southland," said Graystone. "They are one of
the teams that we are aspiring to be so we are hoping to show well against
them.
"Friday
should be a lot fun."
Live stats
and streaming video will be available to fans by visiting www.GoIslanders.com.
Sam Houston State 3, Texas Southern 0
HUNTSVILLE
, Texas - Kaylee Hawkins, playing on her birthday, totaled 13 kills with only
three errors in 22 attempts to lead Sam Houston to a quick three-set victory
over Texas Southern in a non-conference volleyball match at Johnson Coliseum.
The
Bearkats out-pointed the Tigers 64 to 24 in the three sets, finishing off the
match in an hour and nine minutes with a score of 25-9, 25-17, 25-17.
Kierra
Whittaker led TSU with four kills.
Carli
Kolbe totaled nine kills and Kellie Stewart had eight. The Bearkats totaled 18
service aces with Taylor Gray and Kim Black both leading the squad with five
apiece.
Sam
Houston heads to Corpus Christi to play in the Islander Classic this weekend.
Louisiana-Lafayette 3, Southeastern Louisiana 0
LAFAYETTE, La. - Caroline Dufrene
and Kerrilyn Lazare combined for 21 kills as Louisiana-Lafayette rallied in the
third set and defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 25-20, 25-11, 25-20 in the first
midweek contest for both teams Tuesday at Earl K. Long Gym.
Dufrene led ULL (7-1), off to its
best start since 1990, with 11 kills while Lazare added 10. The Ragin Cajuns
hit .268 at the net while Southeastern (5-4) hit a season-low .053.
Courtney Donald led Southeastern
with nine kills while hitting .250 (9-4-20) at the net. Freshman Cherish Krohn
added four kills for the Lady Lions while Arianne Cruckshank tallied 18 assists
and Paige Dollison 10 digs.
Southeastern hit .189 in the
opening set but went cold in the second as it posted a -.125 average. After
hitting .250 in the first set, ULL took advantage in the second posting a .429
average before hitting .159 in the third.
Mandi Gavin had 38 assists to ULL
while Lindsay Brown had 15 digs. Chelsea Barr added eight digs for Southeastern
while freshman Megan McMillin had seven.
Southeastern will return to action
beginning Friday when it competes in the Louisiana Tech Tournament. The Lady
Lions will face host Louisiana Tech (4-4) on Friday at 7 p.m. before facing
Grambling on Saturday at 10 a.m. and Centenary College at noon.
Nicholls 3, Southern 0
BATON ROUGE - Five Colonels hit .300 or better, and Nicholls hit .369 (42-11-84) as a team on Tuesday night as the Nicholls State University women's volleyball team (4-3) wrapped up a stretch of seven consecutive matches away from home with a 3-0 win at Southern on Tuesday night by scores of 25-16, 25-13 and 25-18.
The Colonels were led by junior right side hitter Rachel Yezak who totaled eight kills and no errors on 12 attempts for a .667 hitting percentage. Freshman middle blocker Lauren Chapman added a team-best nine kills while hitting .471 (9-1-17) and the Colonels got strong offensive performances from sophomores Jasmine Harris (6-1-11, .455), Jessica Addicks (8-3-16, .312) and senior Elise King (3-1-6, .333).
Nicholls cruised in a match that saw just three tie scores and one lead change on the night as the Colonels racked up 42 kills on just 84 attempts while recording just 11 errors to hit .369 as a team. Meanwhile, Nicholls limited Southern to .153 hitting (27-14-85) as a team thanks to 36 digs and 5.0 total blocks. The Colonels' defensive efforts were led by junior libero Danielle Daigle's team high 12 digs and Addicks' team-high three block assists.
The match is the final contest for the Colonels prior to opening a three week home stand beginning with the 2010 Nicholls Invitational presented by Thibodaux Regional Medical Center this Friday.