HARRISONBURG, Va. (JMU Athletics) – Kennedy Louisell set the James Madison single-season kills record, but Texas State held on for a five-set (25-18, 19-25, 13-25, 25-22, 8-15) win over the Dukes on Friday evening in front of a program-record 937 fans inside the Convocation Center.

With her 20 kills tonight, Louisell now has 555 in the 2025 season, surpassing Janey Goodman for the JMU single-season kills record in the Division I era (since 1986).

937 fans attended Friday’s match, a Convocation Center record and most fans at a JMU home match since at least 2005. The previous program record for attendance was 910 against Georgs Mason on Oct. 10, 2009.

JMU finished the regular season with a 20-8 record and a 13-3 mark in Sun Belt Conference play. Texas State won its eighth straight match to improve to 16-11 and 11-5 in league play.

Louisell’s 20 kills marked the junior’s 12th match with 20 or more kills this season while also finishing with nine digs. Addie Norman added nine kills, and Ayen Nhial finished with seven kills while hitting .429.

Samantha Wunsch paced Texas State with 20 kills with a .485 hitting percentage while also recording nine digs and five blocks. Texas State hit .316 as a team while holding JMU to .207.

How It Happened
First Set: James Madison 25-18
• A pair of Texas State attacking errors gave JMU a 17-11 lead as the Bobcats burned a timeout.
• The Bobcats trimmed the lead to four (21-17), but JMU scored three of the final four points to take the set.

Second Se: Texas State 25-19
• A kill from Maggie Walsh gave Texas State a 15-14 lead at the media timeout. Out of the timeout, the Bobcats extended their lead to four (19-15) as JMU called a timeout of their own.
• Texas State controlled the rest of the set and evened the match at 1-1, scoring three straight to finish off the Dukes.

Third Set: Texas State 25-13
• Texas State dominated the third set, hitting .500 with 18 kills while applying constant pressure at the service line. JMU hit just .185 in the third.

Fourth Set: James Madison 25-22
• Six JMU aces in the first half of the fourth set gave the Dukes a 15-12 advantage at the media timeout.
• After Texas State tied it at 15-15, five straight points for JMU opened its lead back to 20-15, capped off by an ace from Julia McNeley.
• The Bobcats stormed right back with a 7-2 run to tie the set at 22 apiece. After a JMU timeout, two Texas State errors and an ace from Louisell gave the Dukes the fourth.

Fifth Set: Texas State 15-8
• Texas State jumped to a 7-1 lead in the fifth, and held off a 3-0 run from the Dukes to take the set and win its eighth consecutive match.

Match Notes
• Louisell now sits No. 1 in the JMU Division I single-season kills list. She needs 60 kills for the overall program record, set by Sheila Chittams in the 1984 season when the Dukes competed in Division II.
• Ana Toumazatos finished the regular season with 305 kills, becoming the first JMU freshman since Janey Goodman in 2013 to have 300 or more kills.
• The 12 service aces are the most for JMU since the team recorded 14 against Georgia State on Oct. 13, 2023.

Up Next
The Dukes are the No. 1 seed in the Sun Belt East and will take on the winner of Troy and Marshall in the Quarterfinals of the 2025 Sun Belt Championship on Friday, Nov. 21, at 5:30 p.m. (ET) at the Foley Sports Tourism Center.

— JMU Athletics —