Oct. 15, 2004

Box Score

ARLINGTON, Texas - Texas State used a match-high 31 kills from Elizabeth Nwoke to defeat Texas-Arlington 3-2 (30-26, 35-33, 24-30, 28-30, 15-10) in a showdown for first place atop the Southland Conference volleyball standings here Friday.

Texas State (14-4, 8-2) won its eighth straight match and has won eight of its last nine since dropping a 3-0 decision to UTA to open league play back on Sept. 14. UTA (15-4, 7-3) lost for just the second time at Texas Hall this season.

After losing a heart-breaking 35-33 game two, UTA scored the final four points of game three and then held off Texas State in game four to force the deciding game.

In game five, Texas State never trailed, using back-to-back blocks from Nowoke and Ashley Stark to begine the game and a kill from Nwoke to take a 3-0 lead. The lead swelled to 8-4 at the break and Texas State used a kill from senior Kacee Rogers to seal the win and first place in the league at the midway point in the SLC season.

Van Antwerp paced the Mavericks at the net with 23 kills. Joining her in double figures was Caley Smith (21), Melissa Marek (13), Morgan Rogers (12) and Heather Dunn (10). Dunn dished out a season high 64 assists in the match while also contributing 13 digs. Morgan Rogers led the Mavs defensive efforts with 20 digs.

UTA will return to action Saturday at 4 p.m. when it plays host to Texas-San Antonio at Texas Hall.

-utamavs.com-