CEDAR CITY, UTAH --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (15-6, 4-4 WAC) will head to the Beehive State this weekend to begin a three-match road trip, beginning with a 7:30 p.m. matchup against Southern Utah (5-13, 1-7) inside the America First Events Center on Thursday.
SERIES HISTORY
In the first ever matchup between the two programs last year, UTA used a 7-0 run in the fifth set to produce a 16-25, 25-23, 25-14, 19-25, 15-8 win over Southern Utah in the regular season finale inside the College Park Center. The Mavs were without the services of reigning First Team All-WAC member
Brianna Ford in that matchup.
FORD CONTINUES TORRID STRETCH
Senior outside hitter
Brianna Ford continued her torrid stretch in the win over Tarleton, registering a fourth-consecutive double-double with a match-high 19 kills, a season-high 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.
| 10/5/23 |
GCU |
15 kills |
.297 |
11 digs |
4 blocks |
1 assist |
1 ace |
| 10/7/23 |
CBU |
25 kills |
.561 |
11 digs |
3 blocks |
|
2 aces |
| 10/12/23 |
ACU |
23 kills |
.347 |
11 digs |
5 blocks |
3 assists |
3 aces |
| 10/14/23 |
Tarleton |
19 kills |
.196 |
21 digs |
4 blocks |
3 assists |
|
WELLS ONE STEP FROM HISTORY
Alli Wells added 19 more digs to her career tally this past Saturday against Tarleton, pushing her all-time total to 1,948 and putting her 52 shy of the 2,000 milestone. She is 86 away from surpassing Alicia Shaffer (2,033, 2008-11) as the program's all-time leader. Additionally, the graduate libero has produced 95 career outings with double-digit digs, including 68 with at least 15 and 42 with 20-or-more.
REAGOR'S IMPRESSIVE DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Paige Reagor, a senior middle blocker, produced 13 kills along with a career-high 10 blocks against Tarleton 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'S CAREER DAY
Senior middle blocker
Kortney Puckett accumulated a career-best 12 terminations against Tarleton, 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.
NATIONAL LEADERS
The Mavs currently lead the conference in assists per set (12.72), kills per set (13.89), total assists (967) and total kills (1,056). On top of that, they are also nationally ranked in assists per set (24th), kills per set (20th), opponent hitting percentage (42nd, .170), total assists (25th) and total kills (17th).
Individually,
Brianna Ford leads the WAC in total kills (290) and ranks nationally in total points (22nd, 341.0), points per set (26th, 4.74), total kills (25th) and kills per set (34th, 4.03).
CLIMBING THE CHART
Brianna Ford enters the Southern Utah match with 1,105 career kills, which places her 16th on the program's all-time list. She passed Jessica Bowlin (1,096, 1995-98) in the win over Tarleton and needs 28 more to pass Zhanelle Geathers (1,132, 2014-18) for a spot in the top 15 attackers in program history.
– #BuckEm –
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