Sept. 22, 2009

ARLINGTON, Texas - Watch Alicia Shaffer after a kill. Or a block. Or after any positive play for that matter. Then watch setter Raegan Daniel.

Shaffer, sophomore outside hitter, celebrates and lets her team and the crowd know it. Her most distinctive trademark? At least on Friday night against Arkansas State, it was the tongue out, Michael Jordan style.

But look around the court. You'll notice one player with her tongue out of clear sight. A face of determination and focus. Daniel is filling up the box score, and if you don't pay attention you might not even see her fist pump.

It certainly doesn't take much for coach Diane Seymour to sing the praises of her junior setter.

"Only a couple of times, I'm sure you can note, when I let her know she did not do what she is supposed to," Seymour said with a smile. "I don't think often enough that I let her know that she does do it."

Daniel is in her second full season as the starting setter for the Mavs, and it's been quite a start. She leads the Mavs with 7.7 assists per set while also throwing in a .282 hitting percentage. Her ability to come up with the big play, whether it is a pass or a kill, has given the Mavs life after a 2-7 start to now be 4-8.

With so many vocal players around her, Seymour said the strong and silent type is a good fit.

"She's a quiet leader for us," Seymour said. "She always goes hard. But she really understands her hitters and puts them into situations to succeed."

Even when Daniel doesn't get her hitters into those situations, she owns up to it. After a three set sweep at the hands of TCU Saturday night in which UTA shot an anemic .156, Daniel answered her question about her role in the offense, the good and the bad, honestly.

"That is on me somewhat too if I set the wrong hitter and they have two strong blocks," Daniel said. "That's not all on them if they get blocked because I didn't set the right person."

Make no mistake though: Daniel doesn't confuse owning up to mistakes with a lack of confidence. Seymour doesn't either. Daniel has shown on multiple occasions of being big down the stretch. Her match against Arkansas State on Friday is proof positive.

The Mavs won it in five sets and every time they held a lead towards the end of each set the offense started to falter. Daniel always seemed to get it jump started back up though. She finished the match with a season high 46 assists and the Mavs needed every one of them.

"She sets the right people at the right times," Seymour said. "Even if a kid makes a hitting error, she wont stay away from them she'll force them to come back and get that. That's what makes you a better player to rise from something negative."

What's more impressive to Seymour is the style at which Daniel plays. She's never flashy and it can be hard for fans to notice her fine plays since Daniel isn't the one flying above the net, raining down kills.

"Even though she may not wow you with a killer jump serve or a lot of big blocks, I think the value of Raegan is how she can make her hitter be successful because she wants them to succeed so much."

That success is showing off as Daniel's persistence has helped keep the Mavs afloat while preseason all-conference first team outside hitter Amanda Aguilera gains her strength back from off-season elbow surgery. Daniel has easily made her teammates better with sophomore outside hitter Tara Frantz exploding onto the scene with an average of 2.38 kills per set.

Daniel and Tara clearly showed some chemistry during the TCU match when Tara had a career high 15 kills. They even showed it in post game interviews, setting each other up when facing questions.

"It's just chemistry, every time she sets me the ball I have complete confidence that the set is going to be perfect," Frantz said. "It doesn't matter if it's 20 feet off the net, it's still in a position that I can rip the ball. We just have chemistry."

"And confidence in each other," Daniel added

Frantz looked back at Daniel before continuing.

"Yes, definitely. Every time I mess up I'm like `I'll put it down for you' every time," Frantz said.

Daniel then finished the play; something Frantz is usually the one doing.

"And I'm not scared to give her the next ball."

Daniel has never been afraid of her teammates and fans at Texas Hall might not even notice. And that's all right with her.