Sept. 18, 2009

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ARLINGTON, Texas - The UT Arlington volleyball picked up its first home win of the season at the UTA Hilton Invitational with a 21-25, 25-22, 26-24, 17-25, 15-13, victory over Arkansas State on Friday evening at Texas Hall. The victory snapped a four-match losing streak for UT Arlington (3-7) as they handed the Red Wolves (10-2) just their second loss of the season.

Junior Bianca Sauls led the way with her first double-double of the season with 13 kills (team-high) and 17 digs. Alicia Shaffer and Teena Sobczak each tallied a season-high digs total with 21 and 20, respectively, while Tara Frantz added 11 kills, giving her consecutive matches with a double-figure kills total.

The Mavericks had a season-high 11 team blocks (1 solo, 20 assisted) and had an offensive attack that featured eight players recording at least one kill, including six players with at least five.

"I knew this would be a quality match for us to play," UT Arlington head coach Diane Seymour said. "I'm very, very impressed with our team's resilience to go five (sets) and to gut it out and win it."

The Mavs were coming off a five-set loss, after falling to Oklahoma in five sets last Saturday evening. UT Arlington didn't take any chances in the fifth set jumping out to a 13-6 lead. But Arkansas State made things interesting going on a 7-0 run before Seymour called a timeout.

UT Arlington regrouped and took the final two points of the match on a Red Wolves hitting error and a kill by Frantz.

"It was such an exciting match," Sauls said. "When Tara hit that last ball in everyone was so excited. It feels great to get our first win on our home court."

The match had eight lead changes and 25 ties overall.

Frantz led a Mavericks' charge in the first set with four kills on nine swings, but it was the Red Wolves who took a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-21 first-set victory.

The second set belonged to the Mavs with Alicia Shaffer notching four kills in the set and Sobczak collecting five digs for the second consecutive set to give the Mavs a 25-22 victory.

"I thought we did a great job preparing for this match," Sobczak said. "We just need to try and keep playing like we have been the last two matches."

UT Arlington won the third set 26-24, despite never pulling ahead by more than three points all set. In fact, the Mavericks trailed 5-10 early in the set, but UTA posted 10 block assists in the set to help carry them into the fourth set ahead 2-1 in the match.

The Red Wolves took control of the fourth set midway through as they posted a .174 hitting percentage (14-6-46) while the Mavs struggled to a .000 clip that included 10 kills, 10 errors and 46 attempts.

Sauls stepped forward with two kills and Frantz collected the winner in the fifth set while the Mavs held the Red Wolves to a negative (-.050) hitting percentage.

UT Arlington will continue play at the Hilton Invitational on Saturday with a match at 12:30 p.m. against Texas Southern (5-7) and a match at 7:30 p.m. against TCU (10-3).

GAME NOTES:
UT Arlington improves to 7-1 all-time against Arkansas State with a 5-1 advantage in Arlington... UT Arlington is now 116-16 all-time against Sun Belt Conference opponents... UT Arlington had a season-high 53 assists and 11 team blocks... Raegan Daniel had a season-high 46 assists, which is the most by a UT Arlington player this season... Alicia Shaffer's 21 digs are a season-high and match the most by a Maverick this season... It was Shaffer's third career 20-dig match... Emily Shearin had a season-high five blocks to lead the Mavericks... Bianca Sauls recorded her 13th career double-double with a team-high 13 kills and a season-high 17 digs... It was Sauls' first double-double of the season... Sauls has led the Mavs in kills five times this season... Frantz had a career-high three blocks... Frantz is leading the Mavericks with 36 kills and a 2.77 kills per set average over the last three matches.

UT Arlington Hilton Invitational Action:
In the first match of the tournament, Arkansas State picked up the victory in a brief 43 minute match over Texas Southern that saw the Red Wolves collect a 25-10, 25-13, 25-8 win. Arkansas State held Texas Southern to a -.063 hitting percentage. Brittany Hoag led all players with 13 kills and a .524 (13-2-21) hitting percentage. The Red Wolves helped themselves with 14 service aces and Texas Southern struggled with just one block and 11 kills.