Recap: Volleyball captures in-state rivalry win against Texas State
Sophomore Aleeyah Galdeira celebrates after the Mean Green complete a kill against Texas State on Feb. 22, 2021.
The volleyball squad won its rivalry game against Texas State University by a score of 3-0 after inclement weather delayed the game to today. The last time these two teams saw each other was in 2016 and it was the Bobcats who came away with a 3-1 win.
“When we were playing each other more consistently early on when I was here it was pretty intense and it hasn’t changed,” Head coach Andrew Palileo said. “The intensity of the game hasn’t changed, but we were more focused on what we needed to do.”
This time around, the Mean Green (4-5, Conference USA 1-3) got the upper hand behind 12 team blocks, seven of which came from junior middle blocker Sarah Haeussler. The Aledo, Texas native finished with six kills and three errors on 15 attempts against the Bobcats (25-3, Sun Belt 15-1).
“We definitely came into practice thinking every single rep counts, so being able to have that higher intensity helped us today,” Haeussler said. “We were able to stay focused even when we got down, we were still having that same intensity.”
Other standouts for the Mean Green included senior outside hitter Barbara Martin and her five service aces. Martin and sophomore outside hitter Rhett Robinson each had 10 kills, accounting for 20 of the team’s 34.
“I think it’s really exciting to play a team that’s in a bigger conference,” Martin said. “I think our team did a really good job game planning around that and staying focused throughout the match and having fun.”
North Texas won the errors statistic as well, committing 21 errors to Texas State’s 30. The Mean Green also tallied up the most digs in today’s match with the final stat column being 41-32.
“Neither team really hit well, there wasn’t a lot of kills,” Palileo said. “It was good defense, and it really came down to the serving and the blocking in the end.”
North Texas looks to carry momentum into Friday when they take on No. 6 Baylor in Waco at 6 p.m.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge and we’re looking forward to game-planning against a team like that and stacking ourselves up against a team like that,” Palileo said. “We scheduled them for a reason twice so we can measure up and see where we’re at against them.”
Featured Image: Sophomore Aleeyah Galderia celebrates the Mean Green complete a kill against Texas State on Feb. 22, 2021. Image by Zachary Thomas
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