CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Western Michigan volleyball team put forth a great team effort as it picked up its second win of the season after defeating Texas State 3-1 (24-26, 25-22, 25-19, 25-18) at the Xavier Tournament on Friday afternoon.

Freshman outside hitter Rachel Bontrager led all attackers with 17 kills. Sydney LeMay had 12 kills and a team-high .417 attacking percentage, while Olivia Kofie had 11 kills. Freshman Cassandra Smigiel nearly reached double-digit kills for the second game in a row, racking up nine. Mary Murphy had 47 assists, while three players had double-digit kills led by Kathleen Reilly's 20. Bontrager had 11 for her first career double-double, and Quinna Ware had 12. The Broncos had a solid night on the block, recording 16.0 blocks. Kofie led the team with eight (two solo, six assists), while Bontrager had a career-high seven on four solos and three assists.

"It was a really great team effort," said head coach Colleen Munson. "We had a great day blocking and did a really nice job containing what they were trying to do. Our middles really opened up our offense for our outside hitters. They established themselves, which opened up things for the middles. I thought defensively we did a really nice job within our system and really controlled them the final two sets."

After a back-and-forth opening to the first set the Broncos created some separation with a 19-14 lead. The Bobcats battled back and eventually tied it up at 24-24, before an ace and a kill by Halee Brewer gave the first set to TSU.

WMU opened up a lead in the second set, after rattling off three points to take a 12-9 advantage. The Bobcats then went on an 8-3 run to take a 18-15 lead. WMU responded and tied it up at 20-20 after forcing an attack error and then tied it up at 21-21 on another attack error. Kills by Bontrager and LeMay gave Western Michigan some space and then Bontrager finished off the set with a kill, 25-22.

The Broncos never trailed in the third set, jumping out to a 6-2 lead and managing the few small runs by Texas State to a 25-19 win.

The final set was back and-forth to open it up. At 6-6 WMU went on a big run to create space, leading 14-9. Western Michigan maintained control of the set and cruised to the set and match win after Ware finished off the Bobcats, 25-18.

WMU is back in action on Saturday against Xavier at 1 p.m. and Cincinnati at 4:00 p.m.