UT Arlington Advances Past Sam Houston State
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HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The No. 4 seed UT
Arlington defeated the No. 5 seed and tournament host Sam Houston State (19-25,
25-27, 25-20, 25-18) to advance to the semifinal round of the Southland
volleyball tournament in Huntsville, Texas.
The UTA win
is the first for the Mavs in the conference tournament since 2006.
UTA junior
outside hitter Amanda Aguilera, a first-team all-conference selection, led the
Mavs with a double-double knocking down 17 kills with 19 digs. Senior setter
Raegan Daniel led the Mavs with 46 assists. Defensively, UTA held a big
advantage as four players recorded at least 16 digs led by Aguilera (19)
followed by senior setter Bianca Sauls (18) and junior setter Alicia Shaffer
(18).
Sam Houston
State junior outside hitter Carli Kolbe and sophomore outside hitter Kaylee
Hawkins each recorded double-doubles. A first-team all-conference selection, Kolbe
posted her second 20-plus kill match of the season with 23 kills and had 22
digs while Hawkins had 11 kills and 11 digs.
The second
day of competition at the Southland volleyball tournament is scheduled for two
matches. Match five between No. 2 seed UTSA and No. 6 seed Lamar is set for 5 p.m.
Match six between the No. 1 seed and regular-season champion Central Arkansas
and the No. 4 seed UT Arlington will begin at 7 30 p.m.
The championship match of the Southland
tournament will be televised by the Southland Conference Television Network
Sunday at 3 p.m., CST. Doug Anderson will handle play-by-play duties. He will be
joined on the broadcast by color analyst Jenny McGhee.
All seven matches of the Southland
Conference volleyball tournament will be streamed live on SLC NOW, the
conference's audio and video streaming platform on Southland.org. All SLC NOW
programming is free to anyone who registers on the site.
Fox College Sports Central will air a
replay of the volleyball tournament championship match Monday at 11 a.m., CST,
and again on Tuesday at 9 p.m., CST.
Quotes:
UT Arlington Coach Diane Seymour
"From the last two times we played Sam Houston, I knew this was going to be a big battle and it was. Hats off to the Bearkats. We just came up with a few more digs at the right time. I’m very pleased with my players’ performance today."
"We’ve been digging a lot of balls lately and I know how scrappy Sam Houston is. The biggest sign we were going to play well today was when we started to dig balls to target. That allowed our offense to get going."
Junior middle blocker Emily Shearin
On offensive performance: "It all starts with Raegan and me being up for her. I had a lot of confidence today and I know it helps out my team."