Nov. 8, 2008

Box Score

BEAUMONT, Texas - The UT Arlington volleyball team pushed Lamar to the brink before falling in five sets, 21-25, 15-25, 25-23, 27-25, 15-12, in the first five-set match played in the two-year history of McDonald Gym in Beaumont. After trailing 0-2, the Mavericks used strong defense and a season-high 24 kills from freshman Amanda Aguilera to climb back into the match before losing 15-12 in the fifth set.

The Mavericks fall to 6-22 overall and to 2-12 in the Southland Conference while Lamar remains in a tie for first place in the SLC with a 13-9 overall and 11-2 league record.

UT Arlington finished the match with team season highs in kills (64), assists (61) and digs (99).

"Obviously sets one and two weren't exactly what we were wanting," UT Arlington head coach Diane Seymour said. "I'm very, very impressed with this young team's fight and coming back out in games three, four and five. We really put up a good showing against one of the top teams in this conference."

Neither team led by more than five points throughout the first set as Lamar tallied a 1-0 advantage with a 25-21 victory. Aguilera led the Mavericks with seven kills, while Lamar outside hitter Genevieve Gladle led all players with nine kills.

The Lady Cardinals marked a .343 hitting percentage with 15 kills and just three errors in 35 swings. UT Arlington freshman libero Alicia Shaffer led all players with seven digs in the first set.

Lamar jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second set with two kills, an ace and took advantage of a UT Arlington hitting error and ball handling error. The Mavs were not able to sustain momentum in the second set as the Lady Cardinals never allowed UT Arlington to score more than two consecutive points.

UT Arlington led the entire third set, but Lamar stayed close tying the score on five occasions before sophomores Bianca Sauls and Raegan Daniel recorded back-to-back kills to give the Mavericks the third-set victory, 25-23.

Sauls, in her second match after missing 18 matches with a hip injury, tallied nine kills (.304 hitting percentage) with four assists, three blocks and two digs.

"Last night I was a lot more nervous," Sauls said. "Today I was able to do better on helping my team win. We played with all we had and it was a really intense match."

Aguilera notched five more kills in the third set and freshmen Tara Frantz and Anna Schepcoff helped lead the Mavericks to the win with two kills apiece while coming off the bench.

In the third set, Lamar held an 11-7 lead before UT Arlington went on an 8-2 run, which was sparked by five kills - two from both Aguilera and Daniel - two block assists and then an ace from sophomore Katie Utecht to put the Mavericks in the lead, 15-13, forcing a Lamar timeout.

Aguilera then notched her 20th kill before a Lamar hitting error that gave the Mavs a three-point lead (18-15) to force another timeout.

Aguilera posted her eighth double-double of the season with 24 kills and 15 digs.

"We were in the locker room after the second set and we knew we had to come out and give it our all," Aguilera said. "We had nothing to lose. We just played really hard and kept our intensity up."

The Lady Cardinals came back to take a brief lead, 25-24, but UT Arlington sent the match into the fifth set with a kill from Daniel, a hitting error from Lamar and Sauls' ninth kill of the match.

The Mavericks had control of the fifth set with four kills and a solo block from Aguilera and a block assist from Schepcoff and Daniel before Lamar finished the match on a 6-0 run. Lamar used a solid effort at the net with three blocks down the stretch to remain in a tie for first place in the SLC.

Daniel collected a career-high 49 assists, junior Teena Sobczak recorded a season-high 24 digs, and freshman libero Alicia Shaffer finished with a season-high 24 digs. Daniel finished with her team-leading ninth double-double of the season as she added 16 digs to her 49 assists.

The Mavericks will head back to Arlington where they will finish their regular season hosting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Nov. 14 - 7 p.m.) and UTSA (Nov. 15 - 4 p.m.) at Texas Hall.