Sept. 11, 2004
ARLINGTON, Texas - It was the 1980s all over again for the Texas-Arlington volleyball team Saturday night. All Texas Hall needed was a little disco blaring through the sound system, a glitter ball over the court and bell bottom jeans.
UTA matched the best start in school history with a 3-0 win (30-16, 31-29, 30-28) over Indiana to caputre the 2004 Arlington Hilton/UTA Invitational championship.
UTA (8-1) equals its best start through nine matches when the 1985 squad went 28-4 and advanced to the NCAA regional tournament. Indiana falls to 5-2.
"I thought it was a great weekend for us," said UTA Head Volleyball Coach Diane Seymour. "We found a way to come back several times this weekend. We were down in games two and three tonight but found a way to win. We're not going to squelch the kids emotions, we feel very confident going into conference play (next week)."
Senior Caley Smith led the Mavs offense with 15 kills. Ashley Van Antwerp (11) and Morgan Rogers (10) added double digit kills. As a team, UTA hit better than .300 attack percentage each game and finished the match at .341.
Defensively, Rogers and senior setter Heather Dunn had 13 digs each. Van Antwerp had 12 and freshman libero Dani Johnson added 10.
Indiana was led by Christina Archibald and Lauren Ditteon with 13 and 11 kills, respectively.
The Mavs got out of the gate quickly in game one as they stretched a 7-5 lead into a 25-13 margin after a 5-0 run was climaxed by a Smith kill. UTA lead most of game two until a block by Indiana's Ditteon and Archibald gave them a 26-25. Mandy Eberle's kill gave UTA a 27-25 lead, but UTA refused to lose with a 6-2 run to end the game when Melissa Marek drilled home the winner.
UTA came from behind in game three. Trailing 27-23 after an Archibald kill, the Mavs finished the game on a 7-1 run.
UTA opens Southland Conference play Tuesday at pre-season favorite Texas State at 7 p.m.
NOTES: UTA's Heather Dunn, Ashley Van Antwerp and Caley Smith were named to the all-tournament team. Dunn was named the tournament "MVP." Others named to the all-tournament team were: Kariny Ritter, Houston; Ana Carolina Buccini, Arkansas-Little Rock; Erin Heffner, Alabama; Katie Pollom and Christina Archibald of Indiana.
