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By Cassie Logan | @c4ssielogan

ARLINGTON, Texas - College Park Center's 2,018 volleyball fans Thursday night set a new attendance record for UT Arlington volleyball in a four-set loss to Texas State.

The crowd's energy boosted the Mavericks to a 25-21 victory as they downed five straight points late in the opening set. Redshirt freshman Zhanelle Geathers led the team with five kills, three blocks and 6.5 points in the set. Texas State answered with 25-19 and 25-22 wins in the second and third sets before taking the match in the fourth 25-14.

The Mavs dropped to 13-8 on the season and 4-5 in Sun Belt play while the Bobcats improved to 12-9 and 7-1 in the league. UTA still leads the all-time series 42-33.

The match served as the Mavericks' Dig Pink Match presented by Ben Hogan Sports Medicine. UTA volleyball is teaming up with the Side-Out Foundation to raise money to help make a significant and identifiable difference in the lives of breast cancer patients and their families. The Mavericks also honored Chris Rudiger at the intermission of the match. Rudiger is a 1989 graduate of UT Arlington and a former Maverick volleyball player who was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring. Currently the head volleyball coach at Brewer High School, Rudiger was declared cancer free on Aug. 31.

Stat Leaders
Senior opposite hitter Stacey Koch garnered a team-high 11.5 points with 10 kills, three blocks and 29 attempts. Geathers finished the match with 10.5 points, eight kills and a team-best five blocks. Junior setter Cassidy Wheeler recorded 26 assists with just one error and a service ace. Freshman middle blocker Marisah Ingram hit .444 on five kills and senior libero Caitlyn Cooney marked 11 digs.

Home Sweet Home
The 2,018 volleyball fans in attendance set a new College Park Center record Thursday night. The Mavericks' 2014 Dig Pink match, also against Texas State, held the previous best with a 1,251-person crowd on Oct. 8. UTA is averaging 819 fans through 10 home matches compared to 463 in 2014. The Mavs are 8-2 in Arlington.

Milestone Watch
Ingram tied Olaya Pazo for seventh on UTA's freshman single-season block assists leaderboard. The middle blocker has netted 78 in a Maverick uniform. Two more block assists will tie Katie Weismiller in sixth.

Geathers also claimed the 10th best blocking season by a UTA freshmen as her five block assists in the match broke a tie with Christie Clarkson, giving the Lindale native 73 block assists this season.

Quotable
"They showed a lot more heart and a lot more fight than we did and that's just highly disappointing. That just doesn't happen to us on our home court. We just came out, played one good set and guess we thought we had it won and we obviously didn't." -Seymour on the loss

Up Next
The Mavericks will tour Georgia beginning with a 5 p.m. match against Georgia State Oct. 23 in Atlanta. UTA will have a quick turnaround to Georgia Southern Oct. 24 at 5:30 p.m. in Statesboro.