ATLANTA, Ga. -- Second seed Appalachian State volleyball fell to top seed Texas State 3-0 (27-25, 25-12, 25-18) in the Sun Belt Tournament finals on Sunday afternoon.
The Mountaineers drop to 22-8 overall, while Texas State improves to 25-6 and earns the Sun Belt automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Kara Spicer paced the Black and Gold offensive attack with 10 kills.
Victoria Wilform added eight and
Emma Longley chipped in with seven.
Becky Porter posted her second double-double of the tournament with 29 assists and 12 digs.
Emma Reilly tallied a team-high 19 digs in the contest.
The Black and Gold came out strong and won seven of the first eight points to open a 7-1 lead in the first set. Texas State chipped away at the lead used a 5-1 spurt to pull within 13-9. The Mountaineers pushed their lead back to 17-12, but a late 7-0 run by the Bobcats gave them a 23-21 advantage. Trailing 24-22, App State got kills from Spicer and Wilform to fend off two set points and tie the score at 24-24. Spicer registered another kill to fight off another set point and knot the score at 25-25. Texas State rallied to win the final two points and grab the opening set 27-25.
In Set 2, App State jumped in front 5-4 early on a kill from Longley. From there, Texas State went on a 12-2 run to build a commanding 16-7 lead, en route to a 25-12 second set victory.
In Set 3, Wilform pulled the Black and Gold within one point at 6-5. But the Bobcats answered with seven consecutive points to open a 13-5 edge. The Mountaineers came back with four straight points to pull within 13-9, but could get no closer the rest of the way, dropping the frame 25-18.
App State hit .153 in the contest and registered 33 kill. Texas State finished with 43 kills and hit .330.
For their efforts in the tournament, both Longley and Porter were named to the All-Tournament Team. Longley tallied 25 kills (3.6 k/s) in two matches on the weekend and hit .286. Porter posted double-doubles in both matches on the weekend, with 86 total assists (12.3 a/s) and 31 total digs (4.4 d/s).
