ARLINGTON, TEXAS --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (13-4, 2-2 WAC) will begin a key four-match homestand against Grand Canyon (11-4, 4-0 WAC) on Thursday at 6 p.m. inside the College Park Center.
 
Riding a two-match winning streak, UTA could climb the conference standings with wins over GCU, which is tied with Stephen F. Austin for first place as the lone undefeated teams, and California Baptist (Saturday, noon), which enters this week 10-5 overall and 3-1 in WAC play.
 

UT ARLINGTON VOLLEYBALL INFORMATION
Match 18	UT Arlington (13-4, 2-2 WAC) vs Grand Canyon (11-4, 4-0 WAC)
Date | Time	Thursday, Oct. 5 | 6 p.m.
Location	College Park Center (CPC) | Arlington, Texas
Live Stats	Stat Broadcast
Streaming	ESPN+ ($)
Tickets	UTAtickets.com
Game Notes	UT Arlington (PDF) | Grand Canyon (PDF)

PUCKETT DOMINATES
Senior middle blocker Kortney Puckett became the first Mav with at least eight blocks in a match this season in the win over Utah Valley. She now has the team's single-match high this year in blocks and aces (4), which she achieved against McNeese on Sept. 15. She is averaging 7.5 blocks per match over the past two outings with 17 kills over 29 attempts.
 
THE TERMINATOR
On Sept. 25 at Stephen F. Austin, Brianna Ford became the 20th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills with a successful right-side termination late in the second set. The senior outside hitter now has 1,023 in her career, which allowed her to move past Tara Frantz (1,008, 2008-11) for 19th place all-time on the program's career list.
 
WELLS LOOKS TO JOIN DEFENSIVE TRIUMVIRATE
Graduate libero Alli Wells continues her climb toward the program's all-time digs record. With 1,879, the Waxahachie native sits in fourth place, just nine shy of moving past Amber Pack (1,887, 1999-02) for third. Alicia Shaffer (2,033, 2008-11) and Ashley Smith (1,921, 2003-06) reside in the top two spots.
 
BLANK SPACE
Senior setter Mollie Blank has moved into 10th place on the program's career assist list with 1,781, surpassing current assistant coach Kylee Kapp (1,654, 2018-21) most recently. Against McNeese, she tallied a season-best 52 distributions, becoming the first Mav to record 50 assists in a match since Jessica Stancliff against Northwestern State on Sept. 18, 2021.
 
WAITING IN THE WINGS
After watching Ford achieve 1,000 career kills, senior outside hitter Briana Brown could be the next to achieve the feat by season's end. She currently has 826 kills after a team-high nine against Utah Valley, including 166 this year at a career-best 2.96 per set. In fact, she's already just 24 terminations from matching her total from all of last year.
 
SHE'S BACK
Senior middle blocker Paige Reagor, who opened the season by being named the Amy Svoboda Memorial Classic MVP at Air Force, returned to action Sept. 16 after missing the previous nine matches. She then made her College Park Center debut against UTRGV with 10 kills, six digs and six blocks.
 
SERIES HISTORY
The Mavs are 2-1 all-time against Grand Canyon with the two programs splitting their home and away series last year. UTA took down GCU in five sets on the road before the Lopes returned the favor in four in Arlington the following month. The only other meeting between the two schools came in 2018, which resulted in a four-set win for the Mavs.
 
MR. 100
Head coach J.T. Wenger achieved his 100th career victory at UTA against DFW rival North Texas on Sept. 14. He takes a 104-82 career record into the GCU matchup.
 
In winning his 100th match, Wenger joined Mary Ridgway (254, 1976-81), Diane Seymour (211, 2004-16), Lisa Love (199, 1982-88), Janine Smith (180, 180-137) and Jody Conradt (111, 1973-75) as one of six coaches in program history to reach the century mark.
 
HOT START
This year's team became just the seventh in program history to start a season at least 6-0, joining the 2004 (6-0), 1987 (7-0), 1983 (6-0), 1981 (6-0), 1976 (6-0) and 1973 (7-0) teams.
 
DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS
UTA is now 537-296-6 all-time against teams from the state of Texas, which includes matchups against 42 different schools.
 
SPEAK IT INTO EXISTENCE
Since 1987, there has been 24 instances of a UT Arlington volleyball player recording a triple-double, and there hasn't been one since Bianca Sauls tallied 10 kills, 10 assists and 13 digs against Southeastern Louisiana on Nov. 4, 2010.
 
Here's some interesting triple-double factoids:

• There has only been one triple-double in assists, digs and blocks, which was recorded by Emily Nedderman against TCU on Aug. 29, 2006.
• Shawn Sweeten, a setter who played her freshman year at Texas Tech before helping lead the Mavs to a 1989 NCAA Final 4 appearance, holds the program's career record for most triple-doubles with eight.
• Nine different players have recorded at least one triple-double.
• There has never been a triple-double comprised of kills, assists and blocks.

50 SEASONS OF UTA VOLLEYBALL
This year marks the 51st season of UT Arlington volleyball dating back to the program's inception in 1973. Over those 50+ seasons, the Mavs have built one of the richest volleyball traditions in NCAA Division I history with a 1,152-686-8 all-time record, which puts them 16th nationally in all-time wins.
 
Meanwhile, UTA has compiled 16 national tournament appearances in either the NCAA or AIAW, including a Final Four appearance in 1989, and captured 22 combined regular season and tournament conference championships.
 
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