LAFAYETTE, La. - Despite a team season-high 23 kills from
Madison Hill, UT Arlington was unable to keep up with the late rally of Louisiana, falling 3-1 in each teams Sun Belt opener on Friday night at the Earl K. Long Gym.
The Mavericks (6-5, 0-1) opened up the match with a convincing 25-15 Set 1 win, its biggest set win of the campaign, but couldn't sustain the momentum throughout. The Ragin' Cajuns moved to 9-6 overall and 1-0 in the league. Hill's 23 kills bested her season high of 13 she had on Sept. 1. The Mavericks will continue the league-opening two-match road trip on Sunday when they travel to ULM for a 12 p.m. matchup.
UTA hit a blistering .452 in the opening set and opened it up with its best start of the year, scoring the matches first seven points.
Zhanelle Geathers swung a hot hand in the first, notching four kills but finished with just six. Geathers has 944 kills in her career as she approaches become the 18th member of UTA's 1,000-point club.
Closing out the opener 25-15, the Mavs appeared to be on the way to a two-set advantage midway through the second with a three-point lead. However, a late rally became the story in the final three sets. Louisiana came back to take the second 25-23, took the third 25-21 and closed it out with a 25-18 fourth. The Cajuns scored seven of the final eight points.
COACH WENGER AFTER THE MATCH
Overall thoughts on how the team played...
"We played some very good volleyball through some stretches through this match.
Madison Hill had a really excellent performance for us and really played great tonight. That first set was an anomaly, everything went right for us and everything went wrong for them. Things evened up and I knew they would come back. We were in position to win the second set and it got away from us. We knew it was going to be a fight with them tonight and we didn't come out on the right side of it."
On Hill's offensive outburst...
"She hits for amazing efficiency and percentage. She is really finding her niche with the setters and they are figuring out how to get her the ball. She is able to take advantage of that and is playing really well right now."
On the preparation to get back to action Sunday...
"We will get back to practice tomorrow evening and re-compose after a tough match tonight with a rowdy crowd. We will get to play a team that is coming off a hot streak themselves. We need to refocus and it is cliche, but every league match counts even more. So we have to come out prepared and focused on Sunday afternoon."
MATCH LEADERS
Kylie Jedlicka finished with her first double-double of the season with 13 kills and 13 digs...
Petra Manderson had a team-high 18 digs to go with seven kills and two blocks... Reining SBC Defensive Player of the Week
Madelyn St. Germain had 13 digs... Hill, the Sun Belt leader in hitting percentage hit at a .541 percent clip, finishing with just three errors on 37 attacks, adding a team-best two aces.
MATCH NOTES
Louisiana won its third consecutive over UTA. The Mavs lead the all-time series 16-4... The loss ended UTA's three match streak of SBC openers. UTA is 4-2 in league lid lifters since joining the conference for the 2013 season... UTA is 4-2 when playing after 6 p.m... UTA fell for the first time when hitting over .200 on offense... Louisiana featured three hitters in double figures, led by Nia Antoine... LA out-blocked the Mavs 10.0 to 6.0.
UP NEXT
Concluding the trip with a trip to Monroe, La., the Mavs look to continue their dominance over the Warhawks. UTA has won the last five meetings and lead the overall series 47-3. Following Sunday's match, UTA returns to College Park Center for a pair of matches beginning with Arkansas State at 6:30 p.m. Friday's match is featured as UTA's Daddy/Daughter Date Night with tickets available on UTATickets.com.
