JMU’s Season Ends in Sun Belt Quarterfinals

Friday, November 22

Foley, Ala.

12 p.m. ET (11 a.m. CT)

James Madison University

11-16,6-10Sun Belt

Texas State

20-8,13-3Sun Belt

James Madison

Texas St.

11/22/2024 1:54:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

FOLEY, Ala. – The James Madison volleyball team fell in straight sets (18-25, 17-25, 14-25) to Texas State in the Quarterfinals of the 2024 Sun Belt Volleyball Championship on Friday afternoon at the Foley Sports Tourism Center.

JMU concluded its season with an 11-16 record, while Texas State hit a season-high .482 with only five attacking errors and advanced to the Semifinals to play the winner of App State and Georgia State tomorrow at 2 p.m. ET.

Brenya Reid led all Dukes with nine kills, as the junior finished the 2024 season with 331 kills at a rate of 4.47 per set, tied for the second-best kills per set average in school history (Lindsay Collingwood, 2016). Redshirt senior Miëtte Veldman finished with six kills and five digs, and Jaydyn Clemmer led the Dukes with six digs.

Samantha Wunch and MJ McCurdy combined for 28 kills with zero errors, and Alyssa Ortega picked up 11 digs to lead the Bobcats.

How It Happened
First Set: Texas State 25-18

A kill from Maggie Walsh gave Texas State a 12-6 lead and forced a JMU timeout.
Melisa Ilter trimmed the deficit to 12-10 on her first kill of the match, but the Bobcats scored seven of the next 10 points to regain a 19-13 advantage.
Kills from Reid and Annie Smith cut the lead to 19-15, but Texas State pulled away to take the first set.

Second Set: Texas State 25-18

Olivia Vance recorded her sixth kill of the match to bring the Dukes within one (11-10), but a 5-0 run from Texas State forced James Madison to burn both of its timeouts.
JMU could not climb back into the set as the Bobcats took a commanding 2-0 lead, closing out the set on a serving error from Sara Sykes.
Texas State hit .519 in the second set with 16 kills and only two errors on 27 swings.

Third Set: Texas State 25-14

Savanah Cockrill gave the Dukes a 4-3 lead with consecutive service aces, the first two of her career.
Texas State powered ahead 6-4 and extended its lead to 11-8 on a kill from McCurdy.
The Dukes trailed by only two (13-11) but the Bobcats scored on eight straight rallies to take a commanding 21-11 lead and pull away for the win.

Match Notes

Miette Veldman finished her JMU career with 1,489 kills, the fourth-most in program history.
Jaydyn Clemmer's six digs gave her 1,401 for her career, the fourth-most in JMU history. Her career average of 3.40 digs per set is also the seventh-best in program history.