Oct. 14, 2006
Box Score
ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington senior libero Ashley Smith put her name atop the Mavericks record books as she established a new single-season digs record at UTA in helping the Mavs to a 26-30, 30-27, 30-28, 30-25 victory over Lamar Saturday evening at Texas Hall. The first game loss was the sixth time in seven conference games UTA has lost game one.
Smith now has 576 digs this season and passed the record of 556 digs set by Jessica Bowlin in 1997. Smith also positioned herself in third place on the all-time list with 1,634 digs. Next on the list Bowlin with 1,728.
"Coming into my senior year, my goal was to break any record that I could seeing how I have been injured the last two years," said Smith. "Just leaving my name in the books like that, along with my sister Caley, I just wanted to prove something to myself, my team and my family."
For the sixth time in seven conference games, the Mavs dropped the opener as the Cardinals broke a 21-21 tie behind the play of middle blocker Buchi Okoh to take the game 30-26.
UTA (17-6, 6-1 SLC) quickly regrouped and overcame an early deficit to take the second game. Torie Dacus led the offensive charge with six kills and Dani Johnson added four.
The Mavs did not give any breathing room in the third game as they went on an early 6-1 run to take an 11-6 lead. The Cardinals were able to battle back and take a 20-19 lead on a kill by Courtney Mitchell.
The never-give-up attitude came back for UTA as they took a three-point advantage on a Cardinal hitting error. Smith's service ace set up game point before LU made it interesting with three straight points. After a Mavericks timeout, Molli Abel's attack sailed long to give the Mavs the game.
The Mavs took control of the final game from the start as they raced out to an 8-3 advantage. LU would not roll over and battled all the way back to take a two-point lead at 18-16. A kill by Johnson and a Smith service ace tied the game and the Mavs would take the lead for good on a block from Ellen Murray and Teena Sobczak.
Sobczak and Torie Dacus would push the lead late and a service error from Alex Brink would set up game point. Dacus and Murray would put the game to rest with a block of Abel.
Nedderman was the catalyst for the Mavs as she recorded her fourth triple-double of the season with 10 kills, 40 assists and 12 digs. Dacus led the offense with 17 kills, with Sobczak adding 14 and Johnson 10. Smith led the defense with 24 digs and was followed by Sobczak with 19, Dacus 13 and Johnson 12. Okoh led LU with 24 kills.
The Mavs return to the court on Oct. 19 when they travel to take on Northwestern State. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
