Sean Huiet told his players all week UT Arlington’s only goal this weekend was to ruin No. 11 Texas State’s season.
The Mavericks succeeded in part, sweeping the Bobcats 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-18) inside Strahan Arena on Saturday. The loss snapped a 17-match winning streak for the maroon and gold and kept the team from winning its third-consecutive Sun Belt regular season championship.
But Texas State’s season isn’t over. The Bobcats will still be the No. 1 seed from the West Division in the conference tournament and they still have a chance to pick up a title. The loss, Huiet hopes, will be a wake-up call.
“(The players are) upset,” Huiet said. “But like we said, (assistant coaches) Keith (Anderson) and Tori (Plugge) both, that doesn't change what we've done to this point, it doesn't change the culture and what we what we're doing in our program. We've gone through a lot of adversity this season and I think that's only going to help us going into the conference tournament.”
The hosts seemed like they were going to keep the status quo after sweeping UTA (10-5, 10-5 Sun Belt) on Friday. Texas State jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the first set and looked like it was heading toward a win still ahead at 20-15. But the Mavericks closed out on a 10-2 run, including seven unanswered points to claim the come-from-behind victory.
The Bobcats’ offense cratered in the final two frames as the visitors’ skyrocketed. Texas State posted a .096 hitting percentage, it’s lowest in any match this season by far, and allowed UTA to hit at a .246% clip, the second-highest mark for an opponent this year.
Huiet said the team got stuck in “rotation six” too often, in which junior setter Emily DeWalt is in the front-right position and junior right side hitter Janell Fitzgerald is in the back. The Mavericks camped out on the Bobcats’ outside hitters and the offense wasn’t able to mix Fitzgerald’s back-row attack often enough. The struggles led to the Mavericks earning a 25-20 win in the second set and a 25-18 win in the third to complete the 3-0 sweep.
“When we were up 18-10 in set one, I think we were feeling pretty good and somehow they got that momentum to shift and we couldn't just get it back,” Huiet said. “ like I said, even losing set one, even being down, normally that knock off our rocker makes us go to another level. And today we just couldn't find that other level.”
The team chose to rest starting senior middle blocker Tyeranee Scott during Saturday’s match with a minor injury hoping to get her back at full health in time for the tournament.
DeWalt notched a double-double with 26 assists and 15 digs. Fitzgerald led the team with 10 kills. Sophomore middle blocker Tessa Marshall tallied a season-high five blocks.
Huiet reiterated after the game that the loss doesn’t define Texas State. The team still finished with a 20-2 overall record in the regular season, including a 15-1 record in Sun Belt play. The Bobcats were placed into Pool C for the round-robin portion of the Sun Belt tournament along with South Alabama, the No. 4 seed from the East Division, and Louisiana-Monroe, the No. 6 seed from the West. Texas State will play the Warhawks on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. and the Jaguars on Friday at 2:30 p.m. in Foley, Alabama.
The head coach believes his team can rebound from a “ruined” season. But it’ll take some short-term memory on the Bobcats’ part.
“We leave Monday morning, so we don't really have much time. We only get an hour of practice time on the court in full when we get there, so they gotta go home and watch some of this video,” Huiet said. “And, like we said, you know, ‘Sulk in here, cry in here, do what you want. But the minute you walk out of this locker room, we're forgetting this loss we're forgetting it. We're gonna move forward and we're gonna win four matches next weekend and go to the NCAA Tournament.’ That's our goal.”
