ARLINGTON --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (17-8, 6-6 WAC) will host its penultimate home match of the season on Thursday night at 6 p.m. inside the College Park Center against Utah Valley (9-14, 6-6 WAC).
 
As part of a Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration, there will be free food for students, including a nacho bar.
 

UT ARLINGTON VOLLEYBALL INFORMATION
Match 26	UT Arlington (17-8, 6-6 WAC) vs. Utah Valley (9-14, 6-6 WAC)
Date | Time	Thursday, Nov. 2 | 6 PM
Location	College Park Center (CPC) | Arlington, Texas
Live Stats	Stat Broadcast
Streaming	ESPN+ ($)
Tickets	UTAtickets.com
Game Notes	UT Arlington (PDF) | Utah Valley (PDF)

BLANK NAMED WAC SETTER OF THE WEEK
For the second time this season, Mollie Blank was named the WAC Setter of the Week on Wednesday. It was also her third career weekly award along with her WAC Defensive Player of the Week selection on Nov. 14 last season.
 
Blank opened the week with 49 assists and four digs in the team's four-set win over UTRGV, helping the Mavs avenge an earlier loss to the Vaqueros. She followed that up with her fourth double-double of the season, which included 39 assists, a season-best 14 digs, a season-high-tying three kills, two blocks and an ace in a four-set loss to Stephen F. Austin.
 
The Mansfield native has now recorded at least 33 assists in each of her past seven matches, including at least 40 in five of those. She recently became the 10th player in program history to eclipse 2,000 assists. This year alone, her 9.07 assists per set easily surpasses her previous career-best of 5.84.
 
WELLS JOINS EXCLUSIVE CLUB, SETS SIGHT ON DIGS RECORD
Alli Wells joined Alicia Shaffer (2008-11) on Monday as one of just two players in program history to reach 2,000 career digs. The graduate libero now has 2,006 and sits just 28 shy of surpassing Shaffer's program career record. On top of that, she needs just one more double-digit dig match to reach 100 such performances in her career.

THE TERMINATOR
Just one match after her streak of consecutive double-doubles was snapped at six, Brianna Ford started a new one with 17 kills, 19 digs, a .324 hitting percentage, two aces, two blocks (one solo) and one assist on Monday against SFA.
 
In doing so, Ford is hitting .291 while averaging 18.9 kills, 13.1 digs, 4.1 blocks, 1.5 aces and 1.3 assists over the past eight matches. It was her eighth straight match with at least 15 kills and seventh double-double over the past eight matches, including her 13th of the season and 39th of her career, which ties her with Chris Rudiger (1986-89) for 15th most in program history.
 
Ford also pushed her career kill total to 1,174, which moved her past Amanda Aguilera (1,164, 2008-11) for 13th place on the program's all-time list. Next up on the list would be Fannie Burton (1,245, 1991-94).
 

Date	Opponent	Kills	Pct.	Digs	Blocks	Assists	Aces
10/5/23	GCU	15	.297	11	4	1	1
10/7/23	CBU	25	.561	11	3	-	2
10/12/23	ACU	23	.347	11	5	3	3
10/14/23	Tarleton	19	.196	21	4	3	-
10/19/23	Southern Utah	17	.200	11	6	-	2
10/21/23	Utah Tech	17	.132	13	4	1	2
10/28/23	UTRGV	18	.333	8	5	1	-
10/30/23	SFA	17	.324	19	2	1	2

 
AMONG THE BEST
As a team, UT Arlington ranks 14th nationally in total assists (1,181) and 15th in total kills (1,280). They are also among the top 40 in kills per set (34th, 13.62) and assists per set (39th, 12.56). Individually, Brianna Ford checks in 13th in total points (425.0), 21st in total kills (359), 28th in points per set (4.72) and 37th in kills per set (3.99). Mollie Blank ranks 67th in total assists (807) and 111th in assists per set (9.07).

GOING THE DISTANCE
The Mavs went five sets in four of the past six matches, splitting them at 2-2. Overall, UTA is 3-3 this season and 29-24 in the J.T. Wenger era in five-set matches.

SERIES HISTORY
The Mavs are 1-2 all-time against Utah Valley, although that one win came earlier this season on the road Sept. 30 in one of the team's best performances of the season. Kortney Puckett led UTA with eight blocks and six kills in that match.
 
BEAST IN THE MIDDLE
After missing most of non-conference play due to an injury, senior middle blocker Paige Reagor is rounding into form, totaling 84 kills over the past six matches with a .390 hitting percentage. She has double-digit terminations in each of those outings, recorded a season-best 22 kills against Southern Utah, and has produced an incredible 25 kills with just two errors over 40 attempts over the past two matches.

On Oct. 14 against Tarleton,, Reagor became 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.
 
A PAIR OF ACES
Alyssa Duran produced a UTA season-best five aces against UTRGV on Saturday, becoming the first Mav since Alli Wells on Sept. 9, 2022 against South Florida to produce that many in a match. She also has nine matches with double-digit digs this year, including three of the past six and five of the past 10.
 
Meanwhile, freshman Evyn Snook produced a season-best four aces on Monday against SFA. She has accumulated six over the past three outings after tallying six total prior to that this season.
 
SHE'S BACK
After missing the past six matches, senior outside hitter Briana Brown returned to the court on Monday against SFA, producing six kills and two digs over a pair of sets.
 
RARE DEFEAT
On Monday, UTA handed SFA just its fifth set loss of the season as the Lumberjacks are 12-0 in conference play with seven sweeps.
   
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