STEPHENVILLE – Despite the eighth career 30-kill performance from Hailey Roberts and a career night from Autumn Taylor, Tarleton fell to Texas A&M-Kingsville in five Tuesday night.
 
With Tarleton riding the wave of eight straight wins and five straight sweeps, the TexAnns took the court against the Javelinas as two of the Lone Star Conference's top volleyball teams squared off and the thriller was on from the first serve.
 
After Tarleton fell behind 15-12 in the opening set, Hailey Roberts blasted a kill shot start an 8-5 TexAnn surge that evened the match at 20-20. The junior All-American struck again to give Tarleton a 21-21 advantage and force the Javelinas into a timeout.
 
Out of the break, the teams traded points through 23-23 before Roberts and Taylor went back-to-back to clinch the set one win for Tarleton.
 
After falling 21-25 in the second set, Rebecca Dauenhauer got Tarleton started right in the third. The teams traded early runs and stayed even over the first 38 points of the set through 19-19. Roberts gave Tarleton its last lead change of the set with a kill to put the TexAnns up 20-19. Jordyn Keamo, who was named the LSC Setter of the Week earlier this afternoon, followed up with a quick kill shot of her own to put Tarleton up by two and force the Javelinas into a timeout.
 
Out of the break, the teams traded the final eight points of the set – which was enough to deliver another 25-23 victory for Tarleton. The TexAnns got two kills from Roberts and the final two from Abby Mackey to ice the set and put Tarleton up 2-1 in the match.
 
The fourth set saw another tight battle over the first 34 points as the teams traded blows to a 17-17 tie before Kingsville ended the set on a 7-2 run to set up game point at 24-19. The TexAnns fought to the very end with a kill and a block from Elizabeth Muliaga and a kill from Roberts to force the Javelinas into a timeout at 24-22, but a service ace ended the rally and sent the match to a decisive fifth set.
 
Neither team carried much momentum into the early part of the final set, going point-for-point with each other over the first 20 serves to a 10-10 tie.
 
Hannah McManus and Roberts combined for a block to put Tarleton up 11-10, but Kingsville answered with five of the next six points to win the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.
 
Roberts pounded 34 kills on the night to go along with 18 digs for her 15^th double-double of the season while Taylor landed a career high 15 kills Tuesday night. McManus also got in on the double-digit kill party as the sophomore middle landed 10 with just one error on 21 swings for a team high .429 hitting percentage.
 
Keamo dished out 59 assists and recorded 16 digs for her ninth double-double of the season, while Adrianna Knutson matched Roberts for the team lead with 18 digs on the night.
 
Tarleton will continue its current road trip this weekend with a Friday night trip to Texas A&M-Commerce at 6 p.m. and a Saturday afternoon visit to Denton against Texas Woman's at 2 p.m.