EDINBURG, TEXAS ---
Brianna Ford continued her dominating stretch over the Western Athletic Conference on Saturday with a match-high 18 kills as the UT Arlington volleyball team (17-7, 6-5 WAC) dominated UTRGV 25-15, 25-20, 23-25, 25-18 inside the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
It wasn't just Ford, however, as the Mavs got big performances from
Paige Reagor (13 kills, .684),
Jalie Tritt (11 kills, .476) and
Kortney Puckett (nine kills, .438). Those four combined to hit .449 over 98 attempts with just seven errors.
Sophie Ocampo added five kills, as well.
Alli Wells had a team-best 14 digs as she inched closer to history. She is now just six shy of reaching 2,000 in her career and 40 shy of breaking the program's all-time record held by Alicia Shaffer (2,033, 2008-11).
As a team, UTA's .380 hitting percentage was the third best of the season, and their 12 errors is the fourth fewest. Three players - Reagor, Tritt and Puckett - hit over .400 on double digit attempts.
UTA took control from the start, producing seven of the match's first eight points to force a timeout. Back-to-back kills from Reagor, the second on an overpass, as well as a combo block from Reagor and
Mollie Blank, pushed the lead to eight a short time later.
Puckett added two kills and teamed with Tritt for a combo block later for an 18-9 lead. Ocampo capped the set with her second termination of the frame on Blank's 12th assist.
The second set featured a heavy dose of Tritt's right arm as the sophomore had six kills as the two teams split the first 28 points. Reagor tacked on three kills, while
Evyn Snook had an ace to give the Mavs an 18-16 lead.
Ford then imposed her will late in the set to give her team a two-set lead. She recorded a kill off the block from the left side that stood after a challenge, teamed with Puckett for a block in the middle and added another kill on the right side - all on back-to-back-to-back points - to give the Mavs four set points, the first of which was successfully cashed in on an attack error by the Vaqueros.
UTRGV (14-11, 8-4 WAC) scored the first five points in the third set and notched 10 of the first 12 points in the frame on successful terminations for a four-point lead. The Mavs answered with a 7-0 run that featured a fortuitous kill from Duran, who also added her fourth ace for a 15-12 lead.
The hosts responded to tie things at 16 apiece, and neither team led by more than one from there until a UTA attack error gave the Vaqueros a 23-21 lead and forced a timeout. A kill from Puckett, who then teamed with Ford for a combo block, knotted things at 23 apiece, but UTRGV kept the match alive with back-to-back points.
UTA answered with the first five points in the fourth set and never trailed again. Three straight kills on consecutive points from Ford made it 14-9 and forced a UTRGV timeout. A pair of kills and a solo block from Reagor made it 21-16, and she added another kill down the stretch while two attack errors, followed by a service error on match point gave the Mavs the win.
UTA will be back in action Monday at home against SFA inside the CPC to begin a busy week that will also include matchups against Utah Valley on Thursday and Seattle U on Saturday.
NOTES
With the win, the Mavs are now 6-2 in the all-time series with UTRGV as they avenged a four-set loss to the Vaqueros on Sept. 21. On top of that, they are now tied with California Baptist in the loss column, just one behind UTRGV for third place in the WAC standings.
With her performance, Ford has now totaled at least 15 kills in seven straight matches. Her streak of consecutive double-doubles was snapped at six (eight digs), but she pushed her career termination total to 1,157 to slide past Shari Parks (1,148, 1984-87) for 14th place on the program's all-time list. Next up is Amanda Aguilera, who had 1,164 from 2008-11.
Duran was critical to UTA's success, producing a career-high five aces, which is the most any Mav has recorded this season.
Blank contributed a match-high 49 assists. It was her fifth 40+ assist performance over the past six outings with at least 33 in each one.
Puckett finished with a match-high seven blocks, which matched the total UTRGV had as an entire team. It was the fourth time this season and seventh time overall in her career that she produced at least seven in an outing. Ford chipped in five blocks while Tritt (3) and Reagor (2) combined for five.
Reagor's offensive performance gives her 30 career matches with double-digit terminations, which is third on the team behind Ford (66) and
Briana Brown (40).
Tritt chipped in nine digs to finish just one shy of a double-double.
– #BuckEm –
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