Sept. 8, 2015
Final Stats | Photo Gallery
By Paul Watley | @PRWatley
ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington overcame a slow start against Abilene Christian on the way to its fifth sweep of the season.
A sluggish start to the match saw the Mavericks trail 18-11, but five straight points for UTA cut the ACU lead to two points at 18-16. Still looking for their first lead of the match, the Mavs rattled off three points in a row to clinch the set 25-23.
UTA carried the momentum from the first frame into the second as it built a five-point lead at 17-12. The Mavericks were able to clinch the set 26-24 after holding off a strong comeback by the Wildcats that saw the match tied at 24.
The Mavericks seemed to put it all together in the third set of the night as they closed out the set and match with a 5-1 run that was capped off by a Cassidy Wheeler kill. UTA never trailed by more than three points as it took the set 25-21.
Player of the Match
Qiana Canete registered a team-high 11 kills, while also hitting .370 and recording just one hitting error. The Copperas Cove native registered a team-high in kills in all but one set for the Mavericks. Canete also chipped in with eight digs and three assists on the night.
Stats Leaders
Wheeler dished out a team-high 33 assists in the match to go along with her ten digs, four kills and three blocks. Leading the digging effort was senior libero Caitlyn Cooney who came away from the night with 14 digs. At the net, it was freshman middle blocker Marisah Ingram who led UTA with six blocks.
Key to the Match
Strong defense and a solid offense propelled the Mavericks to victory. UTA relied on out-digging ACU 53-40, while also out-blocking the Wildcats 8-6. The Mavs also hit .248 on the night compared to .167 for the Wildcats.
Milestone Watch
UT Arlington coach Diane Seymour picked up her 181st career win which gives her the third most wins by a Maverick coach. The 181 wins for Seymour passes 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 454 wins during her time at UT Arlington, 335 as a coach and 119 as a player.
Home Court Advantage
UTA's 4-1 record at home to start the season has been boosted by a strong showing from the Maverick faithful. The attendance of 905 fans at Tuesday night's match was the second biggest volleyball crowd in College Park Center history.
Records
The Mavericks improve to 6-2 on the season and have guarenteed a non-losing record in nonconference play with four nonconference matches remaining. Abilene Christian remains winless at 0-7 on the season.
Quotable
"Abilene has a good program and he's played an extremely tough schedule to start it off. Yes they are winless right now, but I knew it'd be a competitive match and it certainly was." -Seymour on facing Abilene Christian
"It's a big maturity sign for us that sometimes there are opponents who you are supposed to beat. We are probably supposed to beat ACU nine times out of ten and understanding that and owning that we are maybe not playing our best volleyball, but that we are the better team and we need to win this match no matter what. I think it's a growing sign for us. Beat the teams you are supposed to and then battle with everybody else." -Seymour on team's fight
"Cassidy is a big part of our team as a leader and on the court. If she doesn't give us a good set we're not going to get a kill and if she's not in there hyping us up, our team is probably going to be dead." -Canete on impact of Wheeler
"I think we're starting to get it together more than we were before. Even in the first game we started out slow and then we came back and fought. In the second game we started out fast and kind of lost it in the middle, but we came back and fought. In that third game we put it all together and fought which just shows a lot of character for our team and how even if we are down we are able to shake off that error and go onto the next point." -Wheeler on fight of the team
Up Next
The Mavericks will return to action this weekend as they take part in the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. UTA will open up the invitational with a Friday match against Southeast Missouri before wrapping up the weekend on Saturday with matches against Northwestern State and Arkansas.
