Oct. 25, 2007

Box Score

UT Arlington got a match-high 12 kills from Bianca Sauls and 11 from Torie Dacus to defeat Northwestern State 3-0 (30-22, 30-26, 30-25) in Southland Conference volleyball at Texas Hall Thursday night.

UTA improves to 15-9 overall and 8-3 in the SLC. Northwestern State falls to 8-12 and 4-7.

Dacus surpassed a 1,000 career kills during the match and now has 1,007 heading into the home finale against Central Arkansas on Saturday. Dacus notched her 14th double-double of the season with a match-high 21 digs. Dani Johnson had 11 digs and Sauls completed the double-double with 10 digs.

"I was very pleased with the way we came out and played (tonight)," said Diane Seymour. "(Northwestern State) style is totally different than Texas State and I thought we did a good job of coming out and playing with intensity."

Junior Ally Wade came off the bench and posted three kills in game three to seal the win. "I thought we had a mismatch with Ally against their small setter and she did a great job."

In game two, the Mavs took a commanding 2-0 lead in the match with a 6-3 run to take a 25-21 lead after an Ellen Murray kill. Northwestern State cut the lead to 29-26 after a Curry shot was wide, but Torie Dacus ended the game with a cross-court kill to make the score 30-26.

The Mavericks playing their third match in six days, began the match slowly as the team had nine ties and five leads changes early in the game. Northwestern State used seven kills from the Brazilian duo of Talita Santos and Ariane Damasio to tie the game at 15-15. However, Damasio committed three straight hitting errors and Bianca Sauls had three kills and a block assist as the Mavs went on a 7-0 run to lead, 22-15.

UT Arlington ends their home schedule Saturday when they host Central Arkansas at 1 p.m.

>MATCH NOTES: UT Arlington participated in the Susan G. Komen Foundation's Dig for the Cure campaign from the NCAA.

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