PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – Senior outside hitter
Bailey Banks recorded her 1,000
th career dig to become the fourth player in HBU history to join the 1,000 kill-1,000 dig club and senior middle blocker
Blair Gillard broke the Southland Conference record for career blocks assists as the Huskies rolled past Prairie View A&M, 3-0 (25-15, 25-14, 25-22), in non-conference volleyball Wednesday night at the William Nicks Building.
Banks led the Huskies (17-6) with 16 kills and seven digs, giving her 1,100 kills and 1,001 digs to join teammate
Jessica Wooten, Heather Leaverton and Jessica Barrera as the only players to reach both milestones. Gillard had four total blocks to give her 502 for her career and three of those were assisted to give her 431 block assists to pass Stephen F. Austin's Aubrey Duncan, who had 430 from 1991-94.
Redshirt freshman middle blocker
Megan Patillo came off the bench to post six kills and a pair of blocks and freshman outside hitter
Mikayla Vivens had five kills, seven digs, two blocks and two aces. Junior setter
Madison O'Brien handed out 31 assits and had six digs, while senior libero
Hailey Erickson led the Huskies defensively with 13 digs and three aces.
Larissa Martinez led the Panthers (3-13) with six kills and had four digs, while Mariah Thomas had four kills. Tatierra Johnson and Christen Augustine each had 11 digs, Erica Jiminez had nine assists and Mikaeli Franklin had eight assists and seven digs.
HBU hit .208, while stifling PVAMU to a -.052 attack percentage. The Huskies also led the Panthers in digs, 45-43, blocks, 7-4, and aces, 7-2.
The Huskies led 6-5 in the first set, then reeled off nine-straight points, behind a trio of kills by Banks, to build a 15-6 advantage. PVAMU was able to get back within six, but HBU put the set away by scoring the final four points, the last on an ace by Wooten, to take a 25-15 decision.
After falling behind, 6-4, HBU scored four-straight, including back-to-back aces by Vivens, to jump back in front for good. The Huskies had three- and four-point runs to extend their lead to 19-12 and scored the final three points for a 25-14 win.
PVAMU scored five of the first six points, but HBU rebounded to tie the set, 8-8. The Panthers led 18-17, but back-to-back kills by Vivens and an attack error by PVAMU put the Huskies in front by two. The Panthers closed within one at 23-22, but an attack error by PVAMU and a kill by Banks put the match away with a 25-22 score.
The Huskies will have a full week off before returning to SLC play against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Oct. 26 in Corpus Christi.
