Troy Volleyball's Comeback Comes Up Short Against Arkansas State

Friday, October 25

Jonesboro, Ark.

4 p.m.

Troy University

8-12,3-7Sun Belt

Arkansas State

18-4,8-2Sun Belt

Troy

Arkansas St.

Troy Volleyball's Comeback Comes Up Short Against Arkansas State

10/25/2024 9:22:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

JONESBORO, Ark. – After dropping the first two sets on Friday night, the Troy volleyball team nearly mounted a massive comeback, but feel short in the fifth and final set against Arkansas State to lose 3-2 at the First National Bank Arena.

Troy (8-12, 3-7 SBC) attempted its own reverse sweep after Arkansas State (18-4, 8-2 SBC) did the same on Thursday night against the Trojans. Troy won the third and fourth sets to tie things up at 2-2, but just couldn't quite hold off the Red Wolves offense in the second half of the fifth set.

Tori Hester once again led the Trojans with 19 kills and extended her double-digit kill streak to 42 matches. Freshman hitter Kalina Calvillo had an impressive showing as she recorded 17 kills, which are the second most in her career and just two shy of her career high. The Troy offense hit .179 (59-28-173) and were set up Janelle Stuempifg – who had a team-high 38 assists – and Jordan Sinness, who had 11. Troy's serving improved, as it had seven aces compared to five errors.

On defense, Jaci Mesa had a career-high 24 digs just one night after she tied her career-high with 23. Ashlynn Axtell and Amiah Butler each had three blocks to lead the Trojans.

For the Red Wolves, Kaitlin Whitlock had a match-high 22 kills on .309 hitting. Daedrianna Cail had a match-high 10 blocks.

Set 1: Arkansas State 25-17
The Red Wolves led the entire set and dominated on offense as it hit .389 (15-1-36). The Trojans struggled on the offensive end, as they hit .174 (16-8-46).

Hester led Troy with five kills in the set, while Butler and Calivllo each had four.

Set 2: Arkansas State 25-17
Like the first set, Arkansas State led the entire way and continued to play good offense, hitting .385 (11-1-26). Troy continued to struggle offensively, as it put together a .152 (13-8-32) hitting clip.

Set 3: Troy 25-20
The Trojans started to settle in on offense in the third frame as it put together an improved .289 (15-4-38) clip while also shutting down the Arkansas State offense. The Trojans led for the majority of the set, and while the Red Wolves tried to make things interesting late, Troy shut down any hint at a comeback on an impressive kill by Axtell.

Set 4: Troy 25-23
In arguably the most intense set of the match, Troy jumped out to a 7-4 lead, but Arkansas State quickly answered and found itself up 17-14. The Trojans closed the set on an 11-3 run to keep the match alive and send things to the fifth set. An Axtell block was the 25th point of the set.

Set 5: 15-7
The Trojans came out on fire in the fifth set as it forced Arkansas State to take a timeout after winning four of the first five points. The Red Wolves found an offensive groove out of the break and went on a 13-3 run to close out the match.

Quotable – head coach Josh Lauer
"I thought we came out and didn't give up. Played with good effort until the end, you know, and just kind of didn't execute as well as we needed to in the fifth set. Two tough road losses against a good team, and now we've got to kind of regroup and get back in the gym because we have a short turnaround this week before matches on Thursday and Friday back at home. It will be good to be back at home in Trojan Arena. We need our fans there and it's an exciting week with homecoming and things like that. We're looking forward to feeling a little bit of love and getting back on the right track."

Up Next
Troy returns to action next Thursday and Friday with a pair of matches against ULM in Trojan Arena. First serve is set for 6 p.m. both days. Fans can watch both matches on ESPN+ and follow stats at Troystats.com.

Notables
• Tori Hester once again led the Trojans with 19 kills and extended her double-digit kill streak to 42 matches.
• Kalina Calvillo had an impressive showing as she recorded 17 kills, which are the second most in her career and just two shy of her career high.
• Jaci Mesa recorded a career-high 24 digs. She tied her previous career best of 23 on Thursday night.
• Troy moves to 8-20 all-time against Arkansas State.