UT Arlington Upsets Sam Houston State
UT Arlington 3, Sam Houston State 0
ARLINGTON, Texas - The UT Arlington volleyball team stunned Sam Houston State in a three set sweep on Thursday night at Texas Hall. The Mavericks 25-22, 25-19, 25-17 victory snapped the Bearkats 11-match win streak as Amanda Aguilera led the Mavs with 14 kills and 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.
UT Arlington (10-15, 6-7 Southland) improves to 6-1 at home during Southland play while Sam Houston State (19-11, 11-2 Southland) drops its first match since losing in four sets at Lamar on Sept. 26.
"It was a well played match by our team," UT Arlington head coach Diane Seymour said. "One of the things we talked about before this match was that streaks are meant to be broken and streaks are meant to be started. We set out to stop their streak and to start one of our own. I know that was our mindset tonight and I thought our girls went out and executed very well."
Tara Frantz had 10 kills, Bianca Sauls posted 12 digs and five kills, Raegan Daniel had a career-high six blocks, 30 assists, seven digs and five kills while Alicia Shaffer led the Mavericks with 15 digs.
UTA overcame two five-point deficits in the first set to win 25-22 behind four kills on seven swings from Aguilera. After trailing 16-19, the Mavs went on a quick 5-1 run to grab the lead which they would never relinquish. UTA held Sam Houston State to a .043 hitting percentage in the first frame as UTA tallied only three hitting errors compared to the Bearkats' 14.
After taking the lead 7-6 in the second set, UT Arlington never looked back with a 25-19 victory. Aguilera again paced the Mavs with five kills and the Mavericks notched 6.0 team blocks in the set while SHSU didn't record a block.
"I thought we really buckled down tonight," Aguilera said. "We knew we had the ability to beat this team and we tried to limit their runs and just play really intense volleyball."
UT Arlington had little trouble in the third set completing the sweep with a 25-17 win. Frantz and Aguilera posted five kills in the final frame as Daniel dished out 12 assists.
UT Arlington completes its home schedule on Saturday, Nov. 7, for Senior Night, as the Mavericks recognize their lone senior Teena Sobczak. On Thursday, Sobczak recorded seven digs moving into 14th place on the all-time UT Arlington digs list with 1,190. In her four-year career with UT Arlington, Sobczak has 36 double-doubles, six matches with at least 20 kills and 10 matches with at least 20 digs.
Central Arkansas 3, McNeese State 0
CONWAY, Ark. - The University of Central Arkansas volleyball team set several school records Thursday night as they swept McNeese State in front of 343 fans at the Prince Center. The Sugar Bears defeated the Cowgirls 25-21, 25-23, 25-18 to improve to 24-3 overall and 13-0 in Southland play.
The victory ensures UCA of setting the school's season winning percentage record for the third straight year. The Sugar Bears also won the Southland East Division outright and needs just one more win to guarantee a share of the regular season overall title.
The Purple and Gray also set the school record for most sweeps in a year at 15.
UCA had an efficient offensive performance by hitting .280 with 44 kills. McNeese hit .141 and only had 28 kills. The Sugar Bears had their best performance in the third set by hitting .440 with 13 kills and just two errors.
Senior setter Robyn Smith hit three different milestones in the match, surpassing the 5,000 assists, 1,000 digs and 100 aces marks. The Lubbock, Texas native and UCA's career assists leader recorded 41 assists, giving her 5,026 in four seasons. She also served two aces, moving her total to 101 and ninth place. Smith's three digs moved her to 1,001 for her career, becoming the 15 Sugar Bear to hit the millennium mark.
Junior right side hitter Chloe Smith led all players with 18 kills and a .452 hitting percentage. Freshman middle blocker Taylor Hammonds added eight kills and hit .400. Sophomores Cristin Curl and Jessica Hays had 13 digs each.
The Cowgirls were led by Priscilla Massengale with nine kills and Chanel Tyler with 10 digs.
The Sugar Bears will host Stephen F. Austin on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Texas State 3, Lamar 2
SAN MARCOS, Texas - Texas State fights to the end to capture a 3-2 (25-17, 25-19, 18-25, 26-28, 15-9) victory over Lamar tonight at Strahan Coliseum. The Bobcats improve their record to 16-12, 10-3 in the Southland. Texas State will play its last match at home on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 4:00pm when it hosts Sam Houston State for the top spot in the league.
Mo Middleton registered 15 kills. Jessica Weynand and Jillian Wolpman both finished with 11 kills, while AJ Watlington added 10. Middleton also recorded five service aces.
Tonight's match was one of the most energetic matches at Strahan this season. With neither team willing to give up it went to a vigorous five sets, with the Bobcats coming out on top tonight.
Texas State took a 3-0 lead up on the Cardinals and never looked back as they won the first set 25-17. Middleton started out hot with four kills on 1.000 hitting. The Bobcats hit .242 and kept Lamar to .000.
Set two had a slower pace as Lamar managed to stay within arm's reach for the first half of the set, until Texas State began to take a slight lead. Texas State made its move at the 15-13 mark when Middleton served two straight aces. Weynand registered a kill at the 18-15 mark to spark the Bobcat offense as they held the Cardinals to just four more points in the set, with Texas State winning 25-19.
Lamar managed to pull some extra stuff out of its pockets tonight to come out and take sets three and four, but Texas State was not willing to let them grab another win.
Texas State came out in the fifth with determination as they kept the lead the whole way. Block assists by Watlington and Amber Calhoun gave Texas State the final point they needed to beat Lamar.
The Bobcats finished the match with 64 kills on .205 hitting and 59 assists. The Cardinals recorded 49 kills on .140 hitting. Kaci Brewer led Lamar with 13 kills and 16 digs.
Texas State returns to the court on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 4:00pm for its last home match of the season. Saturday will be Senior Day as the Bobcats have two players in the Class of 2009; Brittany Collins and Jessica Weynand.
Stephen F. Austin 3, Northwestern State 1
NATCHITOCHES, La. - The Ladyjack volleyball overcame a poor hitting night on Thursday with defense, holding Northwestern State to .042 hitting in a 3-1 (25-14, 25-20, 21-25, 25-20) win at Prather Coliseum.
The win gives SFA (19-11, 8-4 Southland) both wins in the season series and the Ladyjacks have now won all 36 matches it has played against Northwestern State (2-19, 1-12 Southland) in the Debbie Humphreys era. It was also the 10th consecutive sweep over Northwestern State dating back to 2005.
The Ladyjacks only hit .112 for the night with Mary Caitlin Bottles led the way offensively for SFA, hitting .333 with a dozen kills and a career best eight blocks. Kelsey Owens and Emily Franklin were not far behind with 10 apiece. Paloma Buckner dished out 41 assists and Madison Hanlan paced three Ladyjacks in double-figure digs with 13.
Overall SFA turned back 13 Demon shots to help SFA hold an opponent to its lowest attack percentage since Alcorn State hit -.098 on Sept. 18 in Nacogdoches.
SFA only hit .133 in the first set, but that was all it needed as they held Northwestern to -.152 hitting, rejecting four shots along the way. The Lady Demons jumped out of the gate to the tune of a 4-0 run before Ashley Bailey slipped one past the Northwestern block to get the Ladyjacks on the board. A 13-3 run was sparked by that with a pair of sharp spikes from Owens included. Northwestern managed to cut into the lead slightly, but Owens' fifth kill of the set put the Ladyjacks back out in front by five before Franklin and Bottles combined for back-to-back blocks with SFA up 17-10. That lead was enough for the Ladyjacks to cruise to a 1-0 lead on a block from Owens and Bailey.
The second set was not nearly as easy for SFA with Northwestern actually out-killing SFA 14-10 in the set, but the Ladyjacks rarely hurt themselves and swung .280 behind four kills from Franklin and three from Bottles. The teams traded kills from Bottles and Northwestern's Yelena Enwere before the Ladyjacks edged ahead 11-9 on a kill from Franklin. But the Lady Demons fought back, scoring seven of the next 12 points and drawing even at 16 apiece on an ace by Megan Manning. However, Franklin had a hand in a pair of blocks to push SFA back out in front by three and then added another pair of kills to get SFA to 21-17 late in the set. Northwestern managed to add three points, but could not do much more and Arielle Daron finally drove home the final point of the set.
A quartet of bats enjoying the Prather Coliseum rafters was not enough to stop SFA from jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the third set and they were able to hold that margin until midway through the set before Taylor Deering shot an ace down the right line to get Northwestern even at 10-10. But the net was the Demons as their next five points came on Ladyjack miscues, but SFA still managed to maintain a slim lead until a bad set by Owens evened things again at 18-18. Unfortunately, that was all SFA could do as it hit only .042 for the set and allowed Northwestern State to score only four of its final 15 points by its own hand, stealing its first set from SFA since 2005.
Northwestern was able to carry that momentum over as well with a 6-1 run early in the fourth set that forced a Ladyjack timeout. The lead built to 8-1 before Bailey slammed a kill of the Demon block to kill the rally. SFA then turned to Bottles and Owens for offense, getting scores from each to get back to within three points at 10-7. The Ladyjacks continued to chip away at the lead, forcing a Demon timeout at 15-13 before Hanlan got into the scoring column with an ace that was followed by a rejection by Bottles and Sabrina Burns to complete the comeback. SFA then held on to the momentum, scoring six of the next seven points to build a six-point lead of its own and finally cashing in on its third match-point try with a kill by Bailey.
SFA closes out the road portion of the regular season on Saturday when it travels to league-leading, and undefeated Central Arkansas. First serve is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.