Sept. 1, 2015
UT Arlington (2-1) vs. North Texas (1-2 College Park Center | Tickets
September 2 | 7 p.m. | Live Stats | Stream
UTA Notes | UNT Notes
By Paul Watley | @WatP7
ARLINGTON, Texas - After going 2-1 in the opening weekend of the 2015 season, UT Arlington plans to build on the strong start when it hosts North Texas on Wednesday night at College Park Center.
"It was really good for us to get to know everyone's personality and kind of see how people will step in and play in those positions," UT Arlington libero Caitlyn Cooney said. "We got off to a great start and things are looking up."
Cooney was one of two Maverick players to etch their name into UTA history. Cooney moved her way into 10th place in career digs by a UTA player, while setter Cassidy Wheeler also moved into 10th place in career assists.
Another bright spot for UTA this past weekend was the play of senior opposite Stacey Koch. Koch was instrumental in the Mavs success as she recorded a team high 40 kills to go along with a .562 hitting percentage. The impressive showing over the weekend was rewarded on Monday afternoon when The Colony, Texas native was named the Sun Belt Offensive Student-Athlete of the Week.
On the other side of the net from the Mavericks will be the Mean Green who opened up their season with a 1-2 record at the Missouri Tournament. Jumpstarting the UNT offensive effort will be 2014 Conference USA Player of the Year Carnae Dillard. Dillard registered a team-high 68 kills on her way to earning a spot on the Tiger Invitational All-Tournament team. Dillard wasted no time in making her presence known as she notched 24 kills in the Mean Green's season opener against Winthrop.
"You're not going to be able to stop Carne Dillard," UT Arlington coach Diane Seymour said. "You're going to try to limit her. We used to talk about this when we played Little Rock, if we could keep Edina Begic under 20 kills then we would have an opportunity to win the match. You're in the same boat with Dillard who put up 24 kills on opening night last week."
The matchup between UTA and UNT is set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. and will serve as a Blue Out for Maverick fans.
Tickets for Wednesday's game are available at UTATickets.com. The stream for Wednesday's matchup with the Mean Green will be available for free on UTAMavs.com.
Game Notes
- The 2014 season saw the program's best winning percentage since 2004 and the most wins since 2006
- UT Arlington averaged a record 559 fans per match in 2014, including the largest volleyball crowd in College Park Center history when UTA took down Texas State in straight sets on October 8 in front of 1,251 fans
- Through one weekend of play, UTA averaged 548 fans through its three games, including the sixth best College Park Center volleyball crowd of 724 on Saturday night against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
- Cooney broke her way into the UTA career charts for digs in the matchup with AMCC on Saturday night. The senior libero ended the weekend with 1,428 digs which passed Chris Rudiger's 1,413. Cooney enters Wednesday's match 18 digs short of moving into 9th place for career digs and 27 short of 8th.
- Wheeler also chipped her way into UTA history as she moved into 10th place for career assists. The junior setter ended opening weekend with 1,176 assists, passing Dawn Foley who recorded 1,099 assists for the Mavericks. Wheeler now sits 388 assists short of Heidi Christensen's 1,564 assists, which currently is 9th all-time.
- Seymour is three wins short of moving into third in career wins for a Maverick coach and 24 shy of moving into second, while also being 25 games away from her 200th career victory.
- UTA won 49 of the first 50 matches in the series against UNT, including a stretch of 42 straight victories.
- There are four current UTA players who played when the Mavericks last took on UNT in 2013. Wheeler, Koch, Hannah Baptiste and Cooney each saw action in the four-set loss to the Mean Green.
