ARLINGTON, Texas - The UT Arlington women's volleyball team opened the 2019 Maverick Invitational with a 3-1 (25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 25-18) victory over Chicago State on Friday night inside College Park Center.
 
With the win, the Mavs improve to 7-3 on the season, while Chicago State falls to 5-8 on the year.
 
The first set saw 20 lead changes and neither team held a lead larger than three points before Brooke Townsend (9 kills) and Michaela Wright (4 kills) gave the Mavs some momentum with a double-block, sending the ball back onto the Cougars side to give the Mavs a 17-13 lead. Meredith Fisher (10 kills) kept the momentum going as she finished the first set with 4 total kills, the last of which secured the Mavs a 25-21 victory.
 
The second set began with another back-and-forth battle before the Mavs finally went on a 5-0 run to jump out to a 10-5 lead. The Mavs would never relinquish the lead again behind the stout defense of Madelyn St. Germain (16 digs) and Townsend, who had five and seven digs in the set, respectively. After leading the Mavs with five kills in the first set, Kylie Jedlicka (14 kills, 21 digs) continued to set the tone in the second with four more, while her final kill gave the Mavs a 25-22 win. 
 
After losing the third set 20-25, UTA came out in the fourth with a balanced attack, which helped them jump out to an early 10-3 lead. The Cougars clawed their way back to a 5-point deficit at 23-18, but it was a little too late as Bre Walp (9 kills) registered the final kill of the night just before Chicago State's unforced error awarded the Mavs the set and the match, with a score of 25-18.
 
Devon Martinka finished the night with 9 kills and Jessica Stancliff had a team-high 22 assists.
Kylie Kapp recorded a double-double with 16 assists and 12 digs, while Jedlicka also recorded a double-double with team-highs of 14 kills and 21 digs.
 
The Mavericks return to the court tomorrow (Saturday, Sept. 21) for the second and final day of the Maverick Invite. UTA will face Prairie View A&M at 1:30 p.m., before concluding the tournament with a matchup against Stephen F. Austin at 6:30 p.m.