Box Score

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DENTON, Texas - UT Arlington rebounded from a 2-0 deficit to force a deciding fifth set, but North Texas managed to hold off the Maverick rally to take a 3-2 (25-16, 25-18, 12-25, 19-25, 15-13) win at the Mean Green Volleyball Center on Tuesday evening.

The Mean Green (2-3) hit just .175 for the match, but managed to hold serve on its home court, denying UTA (2-2) its first win in Denton since 2008. Qiana Canete finished with her third double-double in four tries this season, scoring 16 kills to go with 13 digs while hitting .244 for the match.

"I'm very pleased with the way we came back," coach Diane Seymour said following the match. "We came out very flat and North Texas was having a great time on their home court, obviously. We didn't' answer back in the first two sets, but I am extremely proud of who we were when we came out and played sets three and four, and even five. We really like where this team is headed."

UTA will continue its eight-match road swing this weekend when it heads to Oxford, Miss., for the Ole Miss Invitational, opening up with the Rebels on Friday night at The Pavilion.

PLAYERS OF THE MATCH
Along with Canete's double-double, Jessica Nwabuko had a hand in 10 of UTA's 14.0 blocks on the season, the most by a Maverick in four matches this season. Three players finished with double-digit digs, led by Taylor Murata's 15, while Zhanelle Geathers hit .364 with 13 kills. Kaitlyn Granger finished with 11 kills, her third double-digit kill effort this season.

KEY STATS
The Mean Green hit a combined .352 in the first two sets to stake itself to a 2-0 lead before the Mavs turned the tide in the next two sets, hitting .296 to tie things up. That included a 15-2 run to close out the third set for UTA, a set that saw them hit .500.

TURNING POINT
UTA trailed just 9-8 in the fifth set before UNT's Amy Henard scored one of her three kills on the night to start a quick 3-1 spurt that upped the lead to 12-9 late in the set. The Mavs would get to within one at 14-13 after a block by Marisah Ingram and Kylie Jedlicka before the Mean Green closed the match out one point later.

QUOTABLES
Seymour on Jessica Nwabuko at the net -- "We are very excited about where Jess (Nwabuko) is coming in her blocking. But we knew that about her. One thing we would like to see is her provide just a little more offense to balance things out, but we have to be really happy to out-block a team like that 14-10."

Seymour on balanced attack -- "I thought we needed to get a little more offense, so we subbed in Kylie Jedlicka and she did a good job. She didn't get a lot of sets, but she didn't' make a lot of errors and that was good. We also went to Madelyn St. Germain as well, thinking she could get to some of those long balls and she responded well. It was good to see us get that many people in the match every night, because that will become a good thing for us down the road."

Seymour on rivalry with North Texas -- "It's always a barnburner here. I think last year we took it to them pretty well on our home court, but typically when we play North Texas is a dog fight. Most of them are local kids or at least kids from Texas and they all seem to know each other from the club scene."