Sept. 4, 2004

Stats

Niagara University, N.Y. - The University of Texas at Arlington volleyball squad closed out the 2004 Western New York Invitational with a three-game sweep of co-host Niagara University Saturday evening at the Gallagher Center on the Niagara campus. Game scores in the match were 30-26, 30-18, 30-20. With the win the Mavericks improve to 4-0 on the season.

UTA went undefeated in the two-day event and junior Ashley Van Antwerp was named to the all-tournament team.

The Mavericks struggled to find a rythmn throughout the match, hitting a mere .195 in game one. UTA led by as many as nine in the match before allowing Niagara to pull within one at 26-25. Two Purple Eagle errors, a Morgan Rogers kill and a Torie Dacus service ace bagged the game for the Mavs, 30-26.

Freshman Dani Johnson sparked the offense in game two reeling off nine kills alongside two 4-0 scoring runs that put UTA in front 30-18.

Niagara opened game three with two straight points and pushed ahead to a four point lead. A Heather Dunn dump gave the Mavericks a 9-8 advantage early but Niagara wasn't finished as the squads see-sawed between leads from that point on. After being locked at 16, UTA used an 8-1 run to put the game out of reach for the host team.

Johnson paced UTA with 13 kills while Smith and Dunn each chipped in with 10. Ashley Van Antwerp led the defensive effort with 17 digs.

Texas-Arlington will face Binghamton in non-tournament action Sunday morning at 10 a.m. (eastern) before returning to Arlington. The Mavericks will host the UTA Invitational Sept. 10-11 at Texas Hall, for ticket information please call 817-272-7167.

-utamavs.com-