Oct. 23, 2010

Box Score

Final Stats

NATCHITOCHES, La. - Alicia Shaffer set a career high by notching 37 digs, guiding UT Arlington past Northwestern State for a 3-1 victory Saturday afternoon at Prather Coliseum.

Shaffer's 37 digs marked the highest total by any player in a Southland Conference match this season and the most in any four-game match. Her strong outing also helped the Mavs halt their four-match losing streak.

"She was all over the place," UTA coach Diane Seymour said. "She was very determined to make sure that we stayed alive in this match early and that we won this match."

The Mavericks' strong defensive performance, led by Shaffer, helped them overcome a slow offensive start and a Game 1 loss. Once UTA (10-14, 4-6) got its offense on track, it rolled to an 18-25, 26-24, 27-25, 25-21 win.

Seymour said the pivotal part of the match came in Game 2 when the Mavs trailed 23-18 but came back for a 26-24 win despite still not playing especially well.

"I don't know if we went into the locker room down 0-2 that we would have been able to come back and win the match because we would have been so disgusted with ourselves," Seymour said. "Nothing was really going right except for Alicia and Bianca Sauls and then we really picked it up after intermission."

Offensively, Amanda Aguileraled three Mavs in double-figure kill totals with 14.

Aguilera and Sauls both finished with double-doubles. Aguilera earned 12 digs to go along with her 14 kills and Sauls had 12 kills and 18 digs.

Eld-hah Kaswatuka added 11 kills.

Aguilera and Kaswatuka overcame difficult starts to help the Mavericks earn their third road conference match in five tries.

"It was just about talking to them about their hitting mistakes," Seymour said. "They had 11 hitting errors through two games and then they had five the rest of the way. They corrected the error situation and that helped us get our hitting going."

For a second straight match, Sauls played especially well. She hit .276 and had four blocks and two aces to go along with her 12-kill, 18-dig performance.

Raegan Daniel turned in a 39-assist effort and also tallied seven kills.

Emily Shearin led the Mavs' blocking effort by tallying seven. The team finished the day with 12 blocks.

Megan Manning led the Lady Demons (11-12, 2-8) by posting a double-double with 14 kills and 14 digs.

The Mavs return to the court Wednesday when they play at Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m.