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ARLINGTON, Texas - The 2016 UT Arlington volleyball season came to a close Saturday at College Park Center as Arkansas State completed a sweep in the semifinal round of the SBC Championship.

No. 4 UTA turned in a 17-16 record overall with a 10-6 mark in Sun Belt competition in 2016. The Mavs' four-match win streak was snapped as the squad went 10-6 in Arlington this season. UT Arlington coach Diane Seymour is 211-195 following her 13th season as head of the program. UTA is 4-4 all-time in SBC postseason. No. 1 Arkansas State (25-7) advanced to the championship game at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Mavericks were within striking distance in the first set until a pair of kills from Kenzie Fields fueled a 7-2 run to stretch the Red Wolves' lead into a 25-16 win. UTA responded with an early 8-3 advantage in Set 2, but Arkansas State kept attacking, leaving UTA running low on energy. The Mavs couldn't recover a double-digit deficit late in the third frame.

KEY RUN
A 10-2 run early in Set 3 built on Maverick offensive errors helped Arkansas State pull away 15-5 to later complete the sweep.

PLAYERS OF THE MATCH
Qiana Canete and senior Kaitlyn Granger led the Mavs with eight kills each; Canete added 12 digs. Cassidy Wheeler notched 21 assists and 10 digs in her final match as a Maverick.

QUOTABLE

"First of all, congratulations to Arkansas State," Seymour said. "Obviously they played extremely well tonight. I've said that all along, what an efficient team the"y were. They really were efficient tonight and good for them. Just didn't really have a way to stop their outside hitter, Carlisa May. She tore us up tonight. We put some good points together. I was proud of our kids fight there at the end. It would have been very easy just to lay down and die. We played some of our harder fought points there at the end, over the last eight or nine points. Obviously you hate getting swept at any point in the season but it is extremely tough to get swept on your home court in the conference tournament.

"Well, this is a great volleyball conference. Coastal and Arkansas State, congratulations to both of them. It is going to be a great final tomorrow. It has been great to have it here at the College Park Center. We have the Taj Mahal of little arenas. It is the best in the Sun Belt. It is a beautiful place to showcase. We've had some good crowds. It is great that Texas State, Coastal and Arkansas State have brought some people. It has been a great venue to host this event and we would like to see it come back for sure."