Oct. 29, 2016
Box Score | Photo Gallery
By Cassie Logan | @c4ssielogan
ARLINGTON, Texas -- A dominant offensive performance for UT Arlington volleyball claimed a 3-0 victory over Louisiana to close its home portion of the regular season in sweeping fashion Saturday on senior night at College Park Center.
UTA (13-14, 7-5 Sun Belt Conference) notched its second sweep of the weekend and recharged its batteries for a four-match road trip. UL (8-18, 4-7) will travel home from its tour of Texas winless after being on the wrong side of a 3-2 decision at Texas State.
Seniors Cassidy Wheeler and Kaitlyn Granger were honored for their careers in a Maverick uniform prior to the match. Both players received framed jerseys and a bouquet of blue flowers.
The Mavs and Ragin' Cajuns traded leads through an explosive first set until three consecutive Louisiana attack errors paved way for a 24-20 advantage for UTA at set-point.
The Mavericks were slow to start in Set 2 and found its first lead, 7-6 on four straight points, including a pair of kills from Qiana Canete. UTA fueled a fire with efficient hitting and a 17-16 dog fight escalated quickly with UTA's 8-1 closing run. The Mavs would earn the set 25-17 and a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Ragin' Cajuns couldn't match UTA's intensity in the final frame with more costly offensive errors that fed multiple runs for the Mavs. Louisiana gave UTA a scare at match-point with a 5-0 run and three consecutive kills from Chloe Cordell, but a final kill from Madison McConnell would silence the comeback.
Players of the Match
Qiana Canete had a double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs. Murata also turned in 11 digs on the night. Wheeler turned in 29 assists, 10 digs and five kills, hitting .667. Granger tacked on three kills with six digs on her honorary night.
Key Stats
It was an offensive night for both teams, though the Mavericks kept its hitting at a cleaner pace. UTA hit .265 to Louisiana's .152 and had just three more kills than the Ragin' Cajuns. Louisiana did out-block UTA 3-2.
Milestone Watch
Canete now sits three digs away from 17th on UTA's career digs list, while Murata is two away from fourth in freshman digs.
Quotables
UT Arlington coach Diane Seymour on the weekend's sweeps:
"Obviously the weekend was great. To come away with two sweeps is awesome for us. We needed that. We had been playing some good volleyball. I'm just really happy that we came home. Our offense was playing really well. That's going to help us head in the right direction over the course of the next four matches."
Seymour on Louisiana's performance:
"They didn't block a lot of balls and they had a lot of hitting errors, so I think that was some of it. They missed a lot of serves so that was lost opportunities to block us that way. They didn't block us because our offense was very, very efficient tonight, hitting .268 as a team."
Wheeler on the emotions of Senior Night:
"It feels good, but we have a lot of volleyball left, so it's just another win in our season. We can't treat it too heavily because we've got to move onto the next thing."
Seymour on the team's strategy for the final road trip:
"We need to continue to have our offense run like it did this weekend. We were very efficient both nights and that's going to be very important against an Arkansas State team who's very tough and a Little Rock team that's clawing their way into the conference tournament. We're going to have to be prepared to stay focused on our side of the net, not put too much emphasis on who it is we are playing, but keep focusing on ourselves and trying to peak at the right time."
Up Next
UTA concludes the regular season slate with a four-match road tour, beginning at Arkansas State 6 p.m. Friday in Jonesboro. CPC will host the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Championship from Nov. 18-20.
