Nov. 11, 2006
Box Score
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The UT Arlington volleyball team got 16 kills, with zero hitting errors and 25 digs from Torie Dacus and 13 more kills from Dani Johnson to defeat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 30-19, 30-18, 22-30, 30-18 Friday evening at the Moody Fieldhouse and secure the No. 2 seed for next week's Southland Conference Tournament.
After giving up the first point of the match, UTA (23-8, 12-3 SLC) took control of the game and raced out to a 15-5 lead on a kill from Emily Nedderman. The Mavs continued their double-digit advantage for most of the game and were aided by only two hitting errors and a .353 hitting percentage. The Islanders used a 7-2 run to pull within 22-17, but a kill from Teena Sobczak and a Nedderman aced helped push the advantage back to nine. Three TAMUCC hitting errors would give the Mavs the first game.
TAMUCC (7-19, 6-9 SLC) battled to a tie through the first eight points of the second game before scored the next six points to take the lead for good. The lead continued to grow and reached double figures on three straight Islander errors. The lead would grow to as many as 14 on three more TAMUCC errors before the Mavs put the game away with kills from Nedderman and Dacus.
The Islanders would not go down without a fight as they battled in game three and got kills from Lauren Paslay and Jordan Wagner to take a lead they would not surrender. UTA would not get any closer that two points the rest of the game and Ashley Thigpen would end things with a pair of block assists and a pair of kills.
UTA was not phased by the game three lapse and came out in the final game and took control of the get-go. Dacus gave the Mavs the lead for good early in the game and three kills from Sobczak helped extend the lead. The lead grew to as many as 10 on a Carol Marcengo error. Johnson would put the match away with a kill on an over pass.
Libero Ashley Smith had 28 of the Mavs 102 digs. Dacus chipped in 25, Nedderman 17, Sobczak 16 and Johnson 13. Murray collected eight of the team's 20 block assists.
The Mavericks close out the regular season tomorrow afternoon against Texas-San Antonio. First serve is set for 4 p.m. at the Convocation Center.
