ARLINGTON, Texas --- In the regular season's penultimate match, the UT Arlington volleyball team (16-9, 8-5 WAC) overcame 13-9 and 14-12 deficits in the fifth set to produce three match points, but it wasn't enough as Utah Tech (11-11, 5-8 WAC) pulled out a 24-26, 25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 20-18 victory inside the College Park Center (CPC) on Thursday.
"We played some really good volleyball for long stretches, but it wasn't enough," UT Arlington head coach
J.T. Wenger said. "(That was a) pretty good Utah Tech team that came in ready to roll. Credit to them and credit to our athletes, too, for grinding it out and forcing a good match."
In a match that was likely a delight for statistical zealots, a combined five players registered double-doubles. For UT Arlington,
Brianna Ford notched the 26th of her career with a team-high 20 kills and 19 digs, while
Mollie Blank tallied her 21st with 29 assists and a career-best 27 digs. On the other side, Utah Tech's Whittnee Nihipali had a match-high 33 kills on 83 attempts at a .337 clip with 10 digs, Chayse Daugherty had 11 kills and 17 digs, and Taela Laufiso had a match-high 58 assists along with 20 digs.
Nihipali's 83 total attacks is tied for the third-most by any player nationally in a five-set match at the NCAA Division I level this season, and she's only the sixth player to attempt at least 80 in a match of any length.
On top of the double-doubles, nine players had 10+ digs in the match. For the Mavs, Blank led the way while
Alli Wells contributed 24 along with Ford's 19 and
Alyssa Duran's 16. As a team, UTA had a season-best 101 digs as opposed to 94 for Utah Tech, who also got a match-high 28 from Mykenna Nelson and 12 from Emma Ricks. For the Mavs, that team total was a season-high and the most they've had in a match since totaling 105 against Louisiana on Nov. 6, 2020.
Incredibly, the two programs also teamed up for 419 attack attempts, led by 215 from Utah Tech, who also overcame 15 service errors, including one in the fifth up 18-17.
For UTA,
Briana Brown (16) and
Brooke Townsend (10) combined for 26 kills as they had three in double-digits.
Meredith Fisher added nine while hitting a match-best .571. In addition to Blank's output,
Sophie Skinner contributed 19 assists, seven digs and a match-best two aces. The WAC's reigning defensive player of the week,
Kortney Puckett, had a team-best four blocks.
The Mavs will conclude the regular season on Saturday at 11 a.m. against Southern Utah in the CPC. The Homecoming weekend event will feature a senior day ceremony prior to the match, as well as recognition of the 2002 team's 20-year anniversary of their NCAA Tournament appearance between the second and third sets. The matchup also kicks off a tripleheader that includes men's and women's basketball games later in the day.
NOTES
- Wells has now tallied seven matches with 20-plus digs in 13 conference matches, as well as 11 this year and 38 in her career. On top of that, she pushed her career dig total to 1,609, which is 15 shy of surpassing Judith McGill (1,623, 1983-86) for seventh-most in program history.
- Townsend's 10 kills bumped her career total to 1,287, which puts her 44 shy of surpassing Chris Rudiger (1,330, 1986-89) for ninth-most in program history.
- Blank has achieved double-doubles in four of the past seven matches.
- Duran's 16 total digs is a new season-high for the defensive specialist. It was her fifth outing with double digits this year.
- Brown's 16 total kills fell just one shy of her season-high that was established on Sept. 9 against South Florida.
- Freshman Jalie Tritt returned after missing the past eight matches due to injury to produce three kills, including one that put the Mavs up 17-16 in the fifth.
- UTA had a five-match winning streak in five-set matches snapped with Thursday's loss. They are now 5-2 in such matches this year.
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