Final Stats

By Paul Watley | @PRWatley

DENVER, Colo. - UT Arlington battled with Denver on the opening day of the Pioneer Classic, but in the end fell 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 14-25, 15-12) to the Pioneers at Hamilton Gymnasium on Friday night.

The Mavericks now fall to 3-2 on the year, while Denver improves to 3-1 heading into the final day of the classic. The two teams traded sets in the first four frames before the Pioneers were able to close out the set and the match with a 9-5 run.

Milestone Watch
Caitlyn Cooney continued to climb her way up the UTA all-time charts as the senior libero moved into 8th place in career digs by a Maverick player. The Houston native recorded 13 digs on the night which give her 1,460 for her career, passing Trisha Walker's 1,455 digs.

Key to the Match
In a tightly contested match, it came down to hitting percentage for the two teams. The Mavericks were out-hit .259 to .196 in the match, while also being outdone in hitting percentage in all but the fourth set. The two teams were nearly even in kills, digs and blocks.

Player of the Match
Zhanelle Geathers provided a much-needed spark for the Mavericks in a must-win fourth set of the match. The Lindale native recorded team-high four kills in the set to go along with a .600 hitting percentage. Geathers ended the match with a career-high 11 kills to go along with three blocks and a .588 hitting percentage.

Career Nights
It was a career night for several UTA players as three Mavericks notched career highs. Marisah Ingram set her career high with a team-high six blocks. Geathers' career night came with 11 kills, besting her previous mark of 6. Kaitlyn Granger recorded her career best with four digs in the match.

Quotable
"I couldn't tell you. Possibly them being on their home court and just being a little older and more experienced may be some of it too. It was a great volleyball match. We obviously got out to a slow start in the first set, but battled back and played some really good points throughout the rest of the match. We had a few little execution things that cost us a point here or there where the momentum swung the other way." -Coach Diane Seymour on the difference in the match

"She's getting better and better every single time she plays. It's about the speed of the game. It's starting to come and it will only get better the more we keep going." -Seymour on the improvement of Geathers

"We've got to come back with the same energy. We watched both those teams play a little bit today. Villanova is big and physical and Air Force is more comparable to our size, but we've got to come with the same energy we had tonight and jump out to a quick start." -Seymour on Saturday's matches

Up Next
The Mavericks will return to action on Saturday as they wrap up the Pioneer Classic with matches against Villanova and Air Force at 11:30 a.m. CT and 6 p.m. CT.