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Scoreboard

Payne and Deais Block
2
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX 9-18,3-16 Lone Star
3
Winner Tex. A&M Int'l TAMIU 6-19,1-12 Lone Star
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX
9-18,3-16 Lone Star
2
Final
3
Tex. A&M Int'l TAMIU
6-19,1-12 Lone Star
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX 25 25 15 19 9 (2)
Tex. A&M Int'l TAMIU 22 18 25 25 15 (3)

Game Recap: Volleyball | | RattlerAthletics.com

Volleyball Ends Season With Heartbreaking Loss

By Heather Kennedy | RattlerAthletics.com

LAREDO, Texas – In the final match of the 2019 season, the St. Mary's Volleyball team won the first two sets before Texas A&M International fought back to win the final three 25-22, 25-18, 15-25, 19-25, 9-15. The Rattlers end the season with a 9-18 overall record and they were 3-15 in their first season in the Lone Star Conference. The Dustdevils were 6-19 overall and 4-14 in conference play.

Senior outside hitter KK Payne (New Braunfels, Texas) recorded her sixth double-double of the year with 11 kills and a career-high 25 digs. Sophomore middle blocker Julia Deais (San Antonio) also led the team with 11 kills and hit a season-best .435 (11-1-23). She and junior setter Lindsey Kaufman (Coral Springs, Florida) each had two blocks to pace the team. Kaufman also recorded her second-straight double-double with 41 assists and 11 digs. Junior libero Catherine Cruz (San Antonio) added 21 digs, while freshman Shea Slusser (Denton, Texas) chipped in a career-best 17 digs on the afternoon. Both Payne and Kaufman also tallied two service aces.

The Rattlers hit .258 and .231 in the first two sets, respectively, but struggled in the final three sets, hitting under .050 in each.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The first set was tied a total of 16 times with four lead changes. The Rattlers were aided by six service errors by the Dustdevils. The final tie of the set came at 19-19 and the Rattlers took the lead on a kill by Sims. An error by TAMIU and a kill by Slusser gave St. Mary's the three-point lead, 22-19. The Dustdevils scored back-to-back points to pull within one, 22-21 and the Rattlers scored three of the final four points with Slusser getting a kill and two Dustdevil errors for the first set victory.

TAMIU scored the first two points of the second set, but the Rattlers got back-to-back kills by Payne and Sims to knot things up and kept things going with four more points for the 6-2 lead. Slusser notched another kill and Pane had her second ace during the six-point streak. After trading point, TAMIU scored a pair of points to close within two, but Tolbert and Deais smashed consecutive kills to push the lead back to four, 9-5. At 14-10, Sims tallied back-to-back kills to extend the advantage to six, 16-10 and leading 18-12, Tolbert served an ace and Deais tallied a kill on a slide for the eight point lead, 20-12 to force a Dustdevil timeout. TAMIU managed one point out of the break, but the Rattlers pushed four straight with two straight by Deais, one by Payne and a block by Kaufman and Deais to set up set point. The Dustdevils had a four-point run of their own, but Deais put the ball away for the 25-18 win in the second set.

The third set was all Dustdevils as they jumped out to the 4-1 lead and pushed that advantage out to a 25-15 victory.

The fourth set was tied at every point from two through five before the Rattlers took their first lead in the set with back-to-back points. The Dustdevils fought back to knot the score at 12-12 and it was tied at 13 and 14 when they regained the lead with three-straight points, including back-to-back aces for the 17-14 lead. Back-to-back kills by Deais and Kaufman brought the Rattlers within one, 17-16, but TAMIU finished on an 8-3 run for the 25-19 win to knot the set scores at 2-2.

In the final set, the score was tied at one and two before the home team scored three straight for the 5-2 lead. The clubs traded points to 9-6 when the Dustdevils went on a four-point run for the 13-6 lead and held on for the 15-9 victory.

INDIVIDUAL & TEAM NOTES
  • KK Payne ended her career with her sixth double-double of the year, tallying 11 kills and a career-high 25 digs. Payne ends her two-year Rattlers career with 476 kills, 37 aces, 364 digs and 34.0 total blocks.
  • Lindsey Kaufman recorded her second-straight double-double with 41 assists and 11 digs. It is her third double-double of the year and her career.
  • Cat Cruz tallied 21 digs in the match for double digits in her last seven matches and 14 of her final 16 of the year and in the other two she tallied nine.
  • Julia Deais hit a season-best .435 (11-1-23) on the day. Her previous best (minimum 10 kills) was .355 (12-1-31) against West Texas A&M on Sept. 28 -- also a five-set match.
  • Freshman Shea Slusser also posted a career-high with 17 digs, bettering her previous high of 14, which she had done three different times this year.
UP NEXT
The Rattlers concluded the 2019 season and two seniors saw the end of their career with KK Payne and injured setter Bree Perry (Houston, Texas).
 
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