Texas State’s tempo too much for Warhawks

Kevin Wade, [email protected]

 The Warhawks were defeated by the Texas State Bobcats in three sets (26-24, 25-8, 25-20) in their late season Sun Belt exhibition match last Friday at home. 

ULM’s streak of sets without a win has reached 30-straight losing sets. 

The last time ULM came away with a set win was over a month ago against Arkansas State. 

The Warhawks are on their second-worst losing streak in the past 10 seasons, only topped by last year’s losing streak that spanned two seasons.

 The Warhawks (5-25, 1-14) came into Friday night’s matchup seeking their second conference win of the season against West Division, leading Texas State Bobcats (17-11, 13-2). 

The Bobcats carried a 10-game win streak into Monroe. Unfortunately for ULM, teams with a double-digit losing streak don’t bode well against teams with a double-digit win streak.

In the first set, both teams went back-and-forth, which resulted in eight lead changes. 

The Warhawks were on the verge of taking the first set as they took a late 24-23 lead against the Bobcats until the Bobcats scored three unanswered, winning the set 26-24. 

In the second set, Texas State dominated taking an early 5-1 lead and held the Warhawks to only eight points in the set. Many offensive miscues occurred on the Warhawks’ end, which allowed the Bobcats to get the majority of their points  as they firmly won set two 25-8.

In the third set, the Warhawks started slow as they did in the second set with the Texas State taking an early 4-0 lead. 

However, the Warhawks would fight back trailing 24-17 late in the third set with the Bobcats having game point. The Warhawks set up three consecutive scores trimming the margin to four. Texas State would eventually get the game point score, winning the set 25-20.

Senior Cali Assaley led the team in kills with 19. Junior Mariana Volponi e Giordan handed out 26 assists and freshman Cameron Rogers finished with 17 digs.