ARLINGTON --- The trio of Brianna Ford, Paige Reagor and Kortney Puckett led the UT Arlington volleyball team (15-6, 4-4 WAC) to a thrilling 19-25, 25-18, 25-23, 22-25, 15-11 win over Tarleton (11-11, 2-6) inside the College Park Center on Saturday afternoon.
 
Ford continued her torrid stretch, registering a fourth-consecutive double-double with a match-high 19 kills, 21 digs, four blocks and three assists. She came within one dig of matching her career high and is now averaging 20.5 kills, 13.5 digs, four blocks, 1.75 assists and 1.5 aces over her past four matches.
 
Reagor produced 13 kills along with a career-high 10 blocks to become the first UTA volleyball player to record a double-double in kills and blocks since Briana Sharatt totaled 10 kills and 11 blocks against Texas Southern on Sept. 12, 2014. In fact, Reagor produced just the 20th kill-block double-double in the program's history since 1987, and she's just the 12th player since then to record at least one.

Here's a full list of double-doubles in kills and blocks by UTA since 1987:

• Jackie Bennett – 19 kills, 10 blocks vs. Texas Tech (9/25/87)
• Jackie Bennett – 16 kills, 12 blocks vs. Sam Houston (10/2/87)
• Jackie Bennett - 22 kills, 21 digs, 11 blocks vs. Arizona (11/26/88)
• Yvette Wingate - 12 kills, 10 blocks vs Stephen F. Austin (10/15/93)
• Lyndy Stevens - 11 kills, 10 blocks vs Oral Roberts (9/23/94)
• Rhonda Rust - 15 kills, 10 blocks vs Lamar (10/30/98)
• Melissa Robinett - 11 kills, 10 digs, 11 blocks vs Lamar (9/19/03)
• Melissa Robinett - 19 kills, 10 blocks vs Southeastern La. (10/31/03)
• Caley Smith - 16 kills, 18 digs, 10 blocks vs Northwestern State (9/17/04)
• Caley Smith - 12 kills, 13 digs, 10 blocks vs McNeese (9/24/04)
• Melissa Marek - 12 kills, 11 blocks vs Little Rock (9/10/05)
• Christy Driscoll - 10 kills, 10 blocks vs Texas State (10/11/08)
• Christy Driscoll - 10 kills, 10 blocks vs Texas A&M Corpus Christi (11/14/08)
• Emily Shearin - 12 kills, 10 blocks vs North Texas (9/18/10)
• Charmaine Whitmore - 11 kills, 13 blocks vs Arkansas State (10/12/13)
• Charmaine Whitmore - 10 kills, 11 blocks vs Georgia State (11/1/13)
• Charmaine Whitmore - 13 kills, 10 blocks at Troy (11/9/13)
• Charmaine Whitmore - 13 kills, 12 blocks (11/22/13)
• Briana Sharratt - 10 kills, 11 blocks vs Texas Southern (9/12/14)
• Paige Reagor - 13 kills, 10 blocks vs Tarleton (10/14/23)

Puckett, meanwhile, accumulated a career-best 12 terminations, a match-best .545 hitting percentage, five blocks and five digs. It was her fifth career outing with double-digit kills, including her second of the season.
 
Despite four kills and four digs from Jalie Tritt in the opening set, UTA fell victim to a 10-1 run by Tarleton as the visiting Texans produced a 25-19 win early to take the lead in the match. The Mavs returned the favor in the second set with an 8-0 run featuring two kills and three blocks from Reagor. Despite a 5-0 run late in the set by Tarleton, UTA evened up the match with a set-winning termination from Tritt.
 
The Mavs held a 22-14 lead in the third set following a double block from Reagor and Sophie Ocampo. Tarleton responded with six straight to pull within two. They added three of the next five after that to trim the deficit to 24-23, but a termination from Ford ended the set.
 
Tarleton scored five straight and nine of the first 11 points in the fourth set before UTA chipped away and eventually tied it at 16 apiece following a 5-0 run that featured a pair of kills from Ford. The Texans scored seven of the next nine points, however, and eventually forced a fifth set.
 
The Mavs opened the deciding set in a strong way, getting a pair of kills from Ford and another from Ocampo for a 6-2 lead. After some back-and-forth action, UTA scored three straight that included a kill and a block apiece from Reagor and Ocampo to clinch at least five set points. Although Tarleton fought two of those off, Reagor ended the match on a termination from the middle.
 
Tritt (8) and Ocampo (7) combined for 15 kills while Ocampo hit .350 and tallied a career-bests in blocks (7) and digs (7).
 
Mollie Blank dished out a match-high 33 assists while adding eight digs. It was her 19th career outing with at least 30 distributions. Sophie Skinner, meanwhile, added 19 assists along with three digs.
 
Defensively, Alyssa Duran contributed 10 digs. It was her second straight match with double-digits, the eighth of her season and 26th of her career, which is third-best on the team.
 
NOTES
UTA is now 5-1-1 all-time against Tarleton in a series that dates back to October 1973.
 
With her 19 kills, Ford surpassed Jessica Bowlin (1,096, 1995-98) on the program's career list and became the 16th player in program history to surpass 1,100 career kills. She will enter next week with 1,105.
 
Wells, meanwhile, added 19 more digs to her career tally, pushing her all-time total to 1,948 and putting her 52 shy of the 2,000 milestone. She is 86 away from becoming the program's all-time leader.
 
HONORING THE 1973 TEAM
In between the second and third sets on Saturday, UTA recognized the 50th anniversary of the program's 1973 team, which went 33-9-3 in the program's first-ever season. Led by head coach Jody Conradt, the squad won their first seven matches, including a two-set sweep of East Texas State, which is now known as Texas A&M Commerce. In the postseason, the Mavs knocked off Texas Woman's University to capture the state championship. Despite a runner-up finish to TWU in the SWAIAW regional tournament, UTA earned a berth to the AIAW national tournament, which is a pre-cursor to the NCAA. Over a span of five pool-play matchups, the Mavs defeated Winthrop, Southern Connecticut and Florida State in straight sets, although they did not advance.
 
Members of the 1973 team include: Cathy Thomas, Laurie Gibson, Karen Owen, Pam Morris, Donna Christiansen, Kathy Gunter, Anne Braswell, Ellisann Hodges, Cyndie Callicut, Chris Mayhew and Kathy Kennedy.
 
The legacy of the 1973 team lives on as they started one of the winningest programs in NCAA Division I volleyball history. In 50+ seasons, UTA has compiled a 1,153-688-8 all-time record, which puts them 16th nationally in all-time wins. Meanwhile, the Mavs have compiled 16 national tournament appearances in either the NCAA or AIAW, including an Final Four appearance in 1989, and captured 22 combined regular season and tournament conference championships.



STORMIN' THE CPC
With Saturday's attendance of 1,277, this year's volleyball team has produced six of the 10 highest attended matches in College Park Center history.
 
1. 2,108 - Texas State - Oct. 15, 2015 
2. 1,433 – Incarnate Word – Sept. 1, 2023
3. 1,396 - Texas State - Oct. 13, 2016 
4, 1,277 – Tarleton – Oct. 14, 2023
5. 1,251 - Texas State - Oct. 8, 2014 
6. 1,158 – Abilene Christian – Oct. 12, 2023
7. 1,127 - Texas State - Nov. 9, 2018 
8. 1,080 – Presbyterian/La. Tech – Sept. 2, 2023
9. 1,058 – Grand Canyon – Oct. 5, 2023
10. 1,057 – California Baptist – Oct. 7, 2023
 
– #BuckEm –

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