SAN MARCOS, Texas (10/19/14) – The Arkansas State volleyball team dropped a 3-1 (17-25, 21-25, 25-21, 24-26) Sun Belt Conference decision to Texas State Sunday afternoon at Strahan Coliseum in San Marcos, Texas.

After falling behind by two sets, the Red Wolves (11-8, 6-3 SBC) jumped ahead of the Bobcats (14-9, 9-2) by a score of 12-8 after a Kariana Castanon-Hill kill in the third set.  After a Texas State timeout, the Bobcats recorded the next point but a 3-0 A-State run, capped by a Drew Jones, Kelsey Reis, and Castanon-Hill block gave the Red Wolves a 15-9 lead.  The Bobcats got as close as one point at 21-20, but the Red Wolves used a 4-1 run to clinch a 25-21 victory and cut the Texas State lead to 2-1.

The fourth set didn't start out as the Red Wolves had planned with Texas State racing out to a 7-1 lead before A-State used a timeout.  After the timeout, Arkansas State settled down and cut the Bobcats' lead to three points a 14-11 before Texas State used a timeout.  When play resumed A-State went on an 8-4 run, capped by a Shelby Holmes kill, to take a 19-18 lead, but both teams were tied 24-24 a few points later.  Texas State tallied the next two kills and took the set by a score of 26-24 and won the match by a count of 3-1.

“It was just too little, too late for us,” A-State volleyball coach David Rehr said.  “We competed really well in the last three sets after dropping the first one the way we did.  We can't start out the match that way though and have to get better.”

Jones led the Red Wolves with 12 kills, while Reis and Castanon-Hill added 10 each.  Mallory Warrington dished out 43 assists and had 17 digs to register her 14th double-double of the season.  Defensively, Markie Schaedig led the team with 18 digs and Jessica Uke had 6 blocks to help A-State record its second-highest block output of the season with 12.5.

Texas State began the match on an 11-5 run in the first set, but A-State clawed its way back to within one point at 15-14.  The Bobcats responded with a 10-3 run to take the first set 25-17.  The Red Wolves and Bobcats battled to an 11-11 tie in the second set, but an 8-4 run by Texas State allowed the Bobcats to gain control at 19-15.  A-State got as close as 24-21, but Texas State earned the next point for a 25-21 set victory and 2-0 match lead.