The Bearkat volleyball team broke a three-match losing streak Tuesday night when it defeated the Islanders of Texas A & MCorpus Christi in four games.Three players entered double-digit kills for the Kats. Carrie Sartain had 21 kills, two blocks and 18 digs. Liz Dahlstrom topped out at 12 kills, one service ace and 19 digs followed by Teri Palmer with 10 kills and three blocks.The win resulted in an overall record of 14-14 for the Bearkats, who are in seventh place in the Southland Conference standings with a record of 7-9 and only two weeks left in conference play. “We know how important the next two weeks are,” coach Brenda Gray said. “We put ourselves here, but we’re fighters. We lost the first game up there (at Corpus Christi) and we could have easily given up and lost the match, but we won the match.” Saturday the team will host the University of TexasArlington, who are the defending SLC champions and were picked as the favorite to win the regular season title again. The Mavericks are undefeated in conference play with a 15-0 record and are 21-4 overall.While SHSU’s Carrie Sartain is the SLC’s co-offensive player of the week, her second nod, UTA’s Amber Pack is the defensive player of the week, her second as well. Pack set a record at UTA as the career digs leader with 37 in three games and bringing her all time total to 1,760.Still, Gray says her team isn’t intimidated.”They put their shoes on just like we do,” she said. “We’re approaching them just like we did A&Mwe know they’re good. We just want to go in and get at least one game off of them.””We’re fighters,” she added. “I know we are better than we were last year. I like this group. We’re still hoping to make the tournament.”
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