No. 4 UT Arlington vs No. 5 Little Rock
Nov. 20 | 4:00 p.m. CT
Hanner Fieldhouse | Statesboro, Ga.
SBC Tournament Central

By Ben Rikard | @BenRikard

STATESBORO, Ga. - The UT Arlington Mavericks turn their sights to postseason play this week when they open up the Sun Belt Conference Championship on Friday as the No. 4 seed against No. 5 Little Rock at Hanner Fieldhouse.

UTA is making its third consecutive appearance in the SBC Championship after joining the league in 2013 and has advanced at least to the semifinals each of the previous two seasons. The Mavs are searching for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002.

This is the second straight year the Mavs will square off with the Trojans in the SBC Championship, falling to Little Rock a year ago in the semifinals before the Trojans claimed the event title and fell just short of a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Coverage
Fans can watch each match on ESPN3, or follow along via live stats. All links are available at the SBC Tournament Central page.

Last outing for the Mavericks
The Mavs closed out the regular season on Sunday with a sweep of South Alabama, giving them a 10-6 record in the regular season and a 19-9 mark overall. UTA will ride a three-game win streak into the SBC Tournament after Caitlyn Cooney kept alive 18 digs in the sweep of the Jaguars and Cassidy Wheeler dished out 30 assists. Stacey Koch led UTA with nine kills and Qiana Canete picked up eight of her own.

Where they rank
As a team the Mavs enter the tournament ranked third in the SBC in both hitting percentage (.215) and opponent hitting percentage (.172). They also second in blocks per set (2.40), and trail only first-round opponent Little Rock in that category.

Individually, senior hitter Stacey Koch stands eighth in the league in hitting percentage (.300) and ninth in kills per set (3.15). Freshman Zhanelle Geathers is second only to Arkansas State's Darby Graff in hitting percentage, successfully connecting on .351 of her attempts while also ranking sixth with 1.00 blocks per set.

Marisah Ingram's 1.09 blocks per set is fourth best in the SBC, while Canete is fifth in the league with 3.23 kills per set. Wheeler ranks in the league top 10 in a pair of categories, finding herself third with 9.58 assists and eighth with 0.31 aces per set. Meanwhile, Cooney also ranks ninth in the league with 3.94 digs per set.

Freshman middle blockers impressing in first season
Ingram and Geathers have teamed up to become a dominant force at the net this season. The East Texas freshman duo leads the team in blocks, combining for 217 this season - the second most in UTA history by a freshman duo - and now trail only the 1983 duo of Kim Draper and Katie Weismiller who teamed up for 256 in their opening season.

The pair enters this weekend as the third-best blocking duo in the SBC, holding the most combined blocks by a pair of freshmen. At the national level, the duo holds the second best blocking mark by a pair of freshmen, trailing the 225 blocks put up this season by UTEP's Kyle Baumgartner and Maddie Morgan.

Wheeler tops 2,000 assists
Wheeler became just the ninth Maverick in program history to surpass 2,000 career assists with a 35-assist effort in UTA's Nov. 7 match vs ULM. She currently ranks ninth all-time at UTA with 2,034 assists and will enter her senior season in 2016 eyeing Raegan Daniel's 2,947 assists to move into the eighth all-time spot.

About the Trojans
Little Rock comes into the SBC Tournament looking to defend its tournament title, and riding a hot streak after winning three of its final four matches of the regular season. That late-season push includes an upset win at home over Appalachian State in the regular season finale on Friday.

The top blocking team in the league, the Trojans average nearly 2.6 blocks per set and are led by Carolee Dillard and Edina Selimovic at the net with each averaging better than 1.1 blocks per set. That net presence has helped Little Rock hold opponents to just .171 hitting this season, but aside from Dillard and Selminovic only Marina Avram is averaging better than 2.00 kills per frame.

This year vs. Little Rock
The Trojans picked up a five-set win over UTA in the team's first meeting this season on Sept. 27 in Little Rock, edging the Mavs 15-13 in the final set. Canete turned in a big double-double with 20 kills and 21 digs, and Wheeler had one of her own with 51 assists and 12 digs. Cooney also added 29 digs, which still stands as her season high.

But the Trojans got double-figure kills from their big three of Selimovic, Dillard and Avram and hit better than .200 in four of the five sets for the match to help push Little Rock to a 3-0 league mark at the time.

The Mavs evened the score with Little Rock a week later at the College Park Center, picking up a 3-1 win behind 23 kills and .211 hitting from Canete. Koch added 15 kills and Ingram had a hand in six blocks as the Mavs held Little Rock to just .122 hitting for the match. Dillard was the lone Trojan to reach double figures in kills with 10.