UT Arlington vs. Southeast Missouri
Sept. 11 | 4 p.m. CT
Live Stats | UTA Notes | SE Missouri Notes

UT Arlington vs. Northwestern State
Sept. 12 | 1 p.m. CT
Live Stats | UTA Notes | Northwestern State Notes

UT Arlington vs. Arkansas
Sept. 12 | 7 p.m. CT
Live Stats | SEC Network + | UTA Notes | Arkansas Notes

By Paul Watley | @PRWatley

ARLINGTON, Texas - Defense has played a key role in UT Arlington's 6-2 start to the 2015 season, as the team sits sixth in the NCAA in total blocks at 78.5 and 34th in blocks per set at 2.71.

"We always pay attention to our blocking number," UT Arlington coach Diane Seymour said. "I'm not necessarily looking at the rest of the conference and how they're blocking, but I do care about us hitting some numbers that are important to us."

While blocking has typically been a strong point for the Mavericks, the dominance shown at the net by a pair of freshmen has served as a nice surprise. Having lost the top two blockers from 2014 in Briana Sharratt and Ashley Bennett, UTA has turned to freshmen Marisah Ingram and Zhanelle Geathers.

Ingram and Geathers have teamed up to dominate opponents at the net as the duo has combined for 73 total blocks. Ingram enters the weekend ranked fifth in the nation in total blocks at 40 and 44th in blocks per set at 1.38, while holding the second best Sun Belt mark in both categories.

"I feel like just because I'm a freshman that I don't use that as a label," Ingram said. "I think that I am just as capable as everyone else. I'm confident about our blocking because it's drilled into us every single day. We just work on perfecting it every day so I can be comfortable with it."

Geathers, the reigning Sun Belt Freshman of the Week, has also made an impact with the 28th best mark in the NCAA in total blocks at 33, while sitting just outside the top 100 in blocks per set at 1.14.

"We've always been a strong blocking team so it's really important to me that I don't care what age our middle blockers are," Seymour added. "They need to carry on that tradition and work ethic and understand that it is possible because we recruit a certain kind of kid that we know can be very consistent for us and maybe even put some spectacular numbers up. We just have to stay on them a little bit and make them understand that they have to work hard every point."

The Mavericks will look to continue the strong showing at the net this weekend as they travel to Fayetteville, Ark. to take part in the Razorback Invitational. UTA will open up the invitational on Friday against Southeast Missouri before closing out the weekend with matches against Northwestern State and Arkansas on Saturday.