UTA vs. Villanova Stats | UTA vs. Air Force Stats

By Paul Watley | @PRWatley

DENVER, Colo. - UT Arlington picked up a pair of victories in the final day of the Pioneer Classic, defeating Villanova in four sets before claiming a sweep of Air Force to wrap up the classic.

After taking a two-set lead early in the match against Villanova, the Mavericks were nearly forced into a fifth set as the Wildcats took the third set 25-18 and held a 24-23 lead in the fourth set. Stacey Koch and Zhanelle Geathers then put up back-to-back kills to give UTA a one-point advantage. The Mavs had five match points before closing out the set and match 30-28.

The final match of the day saw UTA close out Air Force in straight sets (25-18, 25-18, 25-19). The Mavs hit .416 in the match, while holding the Falcons to hitting .143. UTA dominated the nets as it out-blocked Air Force 12-3 in the three-set match.

Player of the Day
Geathers had another outstanding set of matches, as the redshirt freshman recorded 19 kills to go along with a team-high 13 blocks. Geathers followed up a 12-kill, seven-block performance with a seven-kill, six-block outing. The Lindale native averaged 2.5 kills and 1.33 blocks per set in the three matches of the Pioneer Classic.

Stat Leaders
Five Maverick players totaled double-digit kills in the two matches combined, with Qiana Canete leading the way at 21. Cassidy Wheeler dished out 73 assists on the day for an average of 10.43 assists per set. Caitlyn Cooney and Canete each registered 21 digs on the final day, while Geathers came away with 13 blocks in the pair of matches.

Milestone Watch
With the victories over Villanova and Air Force, UT Arlington coach Diane Seymour is now tied for third place in career wins by Maverick a coach. The 180 wins for Seymour tied Janine Smith who served as the UTA head coach from 1994-2003. Seymour served as an assistant coach under Smith from 1996-2003. The former UT Arlington player has also amassed a total of 453 wins during her time at UT Arlington, 334 as a coach and 119 as a player.

Block Party
The Mavericks dominance at the net has been evident for the past five matches as the team has registered 10+ blocks in games against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, North Texas, Denver, Villanova and Air Force. The Mavericks out-blocked Villanova 14.5-9 in the four-set match, as five UTA players recorded 4+ blocks. UTA followed up that performance with a 10-block effort against Air Force.

Fast Out of the Gate
Entering Saturday matches, UTA was 3-0 when claiming the opening frame and the matches against Villanova and Air Force were no different. The Mavericks took the opening set in both of the matches, taking down the Wildcats and Falcons 25-18. When losing the first set, UTA is 0-2 with both losses coming in five sets against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Denver.

Quotable
"We are still showing some resiliency. I don't think that we played our best volleyball all day today, but we remained focused on some of the basics. I thought we served and passed really well. We might have had a lot more service errors tonight versus aces, but for the most part we executed where we wanted to serve and we passed the ball in serve receive extremely well." -Seymour on UTA's play on Saturday

"We were talking about it earlier that I've spent half of my life here at UTA. I played here for five years and now I'm in about year 20 as a coach and I'm about to turn 50. So I've spent about half my life dedicated to UTA. It does mean a lot, but my only regret is all the losses." -Seymour on moving into a tie for 3rd in career wins by a UTA coach

"Jason Bibler is going to have them prepared, no doubt. They were a lot better this spring when we played them. We're going to get into the gym on Monday and do a light workout on some things that we know we will see from them. They have played some really tough competition, but I know they feel a lot better about themselves this year versus when we played them last year. We've got to be ready to play." -Seymour on facing Abilene Christian on Tuesday

"I'm seeing that we're really fighting back. Even though we have these little lulls in the middle of our game, we still continue to fight and we don't give up. We took a good Denver team to five sets yesterday and just kept fighting today." -Wheeler on the strength of the team

"They're very quick to change and are very coachable. If they make one mistake they know what they did wrong, which is going in a good direction." -Wheeler on the play of freshmen Geathers and Ingram.

Up Next
The Mavericks will return to action on Tuesday when they host Abilene Christian at 6:30 p.m. The Wildcats are 0-6 this season, including three losses against teams ranked or receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches' Poll.­

Pioneer Classic MVP
Cassie Baird

Pioneer Classic All-Tournament Team
Monique Domme, Denver

Kayla Principato, Denver

Zhanelle Geathers, UT Arlington

Stacey Koch, UT Arlington

Amanda Pederson-Henry, Villanova

Pioneer Classic Champions
Denver Pioneers

Pioneer Classic Runners-up
UT Arlington Mavericks