PHOENIX, ARIZ. --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (20-8, 9-6 WAC) will conclude the regular season on the road Saturday at 5 p.m. against Grand Canyon (19-7, 12-3 WAC) inside the GCU Arena.
 
Both teams have already locked up their seeds for the next week's WAC postseason tournament with GCU at No. 2 and UTA at No. 4. With a loss against the Mavs and a UTRGV win over Abilene Christian, GCU and UTRGV would be tied in the standings, but the Antelopes hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.

With Thursday's win over CBU, UTA secured its first 20 win season since 2019. In fact, it ties them for the second most victories since 2006, and they achieved the win without four players - Alyssa Duran, Kortney Puckett, Jalie Tritt and Samantha Glenn. Three of those four are regular starters.
 

UT ARLINGTON VOLLEYBALL INFORMATION
Match 29	UT Arlington (20-8, 9-6 WAC) at Grand Canyon (19-7, 12-3 WAC)
Date | Time	Saturday, Nov. 11 | 5 PM
Location	GCU Arena | Phoenix, Ariz.
Live Stats	Stat Broadcast
Streaming	ESPN+ ($)
Game Notes	UT Arlington (PDF)

BACK-TO-BACK FOR BLANK
For the second straight week and third time overall this season, senior Mollie Blank was named the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Setter of the Week on Wednesday.
 
The Mansfield native, who has now achieved at least 33 assists in 10 straight matches including Thursday against CBU, averaged 10.57 assists, 2.57 digs, 1.64 points and 1.29 kills per set over a pair of wins. She opened the week with 37 assists, 12 digs, three kills, two aces and a block in a win over Utah Valley. Following that, she concluded the week with 37 assists, six digs and a season-best six kills in a win over Seattle U.
 
Blank, who also won the award on Sept. 20 along with her Nov. 1 selection, enters the GCU match with at least one kill in 14 straight matches - including 3+ in four straight. She also has double-doubles in three of the past four outings. It's her fourth career weekly award along with a WAC Defensive Player of the Week award Nov. 14 of last year. She recently became the 10th player in program history to eclipse 2,000 assists, and her 9.20 assists per set this year easily surpasses her previous career-best of 5.84.
 

MOLLIE BLANK - PREVIOUS 10 MATCHES
Date	Opponent	Assists	Digs	Kills	Blocks
10/7/23	CBU	41	5	2	0
10/12/23	ACU	44	4	1	4
10/14/23	Tarleton	33	8	2	0
10/19/23	Southern Utah	41	6	1	0
10/21/23	Utah Tech	50	7	1	2
10/28/23	UTRGV	49	4	1	1
10/30/23	SFA	39	14	3	2
11/2/23	Utah Valley	37	12	3	1
11/4/23	Seattle U	37	6	6	0
11/9/23	California Baptist	48	12	3	0
AVERAGES		41.9	7.8	2.3	1.0

 
THE TERMINATOR
After having her streak of consecutive double-doubles snapped at six against UTRGV on Oct. 28, senior outside hitter Brianna Ford started a new streak against SFA and has now produced 10 over the team's past 11 matches, a stretch in which she is averaging 18.1 kills, 13.2 digs, 4.6 blocks, 1.2 aces and 1.1 assists while hitting .279.
 
In Thursday's win over CBU, Ford hit .309 with 24 kills, 12 digs and a career-high nine blocks as she nearly became the first player in the program's past 13 years to record a triple-double. She settled for her 42nd career double-double, which moves her into a tie with Shawn Sweeten for the 11th-most in program history (1985-present). She also bumped her career termination total to 1,222, which puts her within 23 of surpassing Fannie Burton (1,245, 1991-94) for 12th on the program's all-time list.
 

BRIANNA FORD - LAST 11 MATCHES
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
11/2/23	Utah Valley	11	.049	17	6	1	1
11/4/23	Seattle U	13	.435	11	3	0	0
11/9/23	California Baptist	24	.309	12	9	1	0
AVERAGES		18.1	.279	13.2	4.6	1.1	1.2

 
BEAST IN THE MIDDLE
After missing most of non-conference play due to an injury, senior middle blocker Paige Reagor is rounding into form, averaging 13.2 kills, a .429 hitting percentage and 5.2 blocks over the past nine matches. She has double-digit terminations in eight of those nine, including a season-best 22 kills against Southern Utah, and she has produced 60 kills with just seven errors while hitting .559 over the past five 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.
 

PAIGE REAGOR - LAST 9 MATCHES
Date	Opponent	Kills	Pct.	Blocks
10/12/23	ACU	14	.458	5
10/14/23	Tarleton	13	.219	10
10/19/23	Southern Utah	22	.400	7
10/21/23	Utah Tech	10	.217	8
10/28/23	UTRGV	13	.684	2
10/30/23	SFA	12	.476	2
11/2/23	Utah Valley	16	.583	6
11/4/23	Seattle U	8	.727	3
11/9/23	California Baptist	11	.400	4
AVERAGES		13.2	.429	5.2

 
BEST OFFENSIVE OUTING IN 30+ YEARS
As a team, UTA hit .550 against Seattle U on Nov. 4 to produce the program's best offensive performance since Nov. 20, 1992 against UTSA (.562). In fact, it was the program's fourth-best hitting percentage in any match since 1985, and they are only the second team to even eclipse .500 since 1992. Overall, it was only the 10th time since 1985 that UTA hit at least .500 in a match.
 

9/25/85	.583	vs North Texas	Arlington, Texas
9/19/92	.567 (44-6-67)	vs Louisiana	Arlington, Texas
11/20/92	.562 (54-4-89)	vs UTSA	San Antonio, Texas
11/4/23	.550 (52-8-80)	vs Seattle U	Arlington, Texas
10/31/89	.532 (39-6-62)	vs SFA	Arlington, Texas
9/30/88	.518 (50-7-83)	vs Rice	Arlington, Texas
10/23/89	.514 (46-9-72)	vs McNeese	Arlington, Texas
10/28/88	.508 (39-6-65)	vs Sam Houston	Huntsville, Texas
10/14/09	.507 (38-1-73)	vs Northwestern State	Arlington, Texas
10/15/88	.500 (44-10-68)	vs McNeese	Arlington, Texas

 
WELLS BREAKS RECORD IN DRAMATIC FASHION
Alli Wells, a graduate year libero, broke UTA's career digs record on the final rally of her home collegiate career this past Saturday against Seattle U. It was the 2,034th career dig for the Waxahachie native, allowing her to break Alicia Shaffer's (2,033, 2008-11) record, setting off a celebration inside the CPC as the rally was capped by a kill from Briana Brown to clinch a sweep. Wells now has 101 career matches with double-digit digs and enters the GCU match with 2,047 digs.

AMONG THE BEST
As a team, UT Arlington ranks fifth nationally in total kills (1,439), 10th in total assists (1,321), 35th in kills per set (13.58) and 47th in assists per set (12.46). Individually, Brianna Ford ranks among the top 50 individuals in total points (11th, 483.5), total kills (19th, 407), points per set (26th, 4.74) and kills per set (40th, 3.99). Paige Reagor, who leads the WAC in hitting percentage, ranks 38th nationally in that category at .385.
 
SERIES HISTORY
The Mavs are 2-2 all-time against Grand Canyon with the two programs splitting their home and away series last year and GCU claiming a four-set victory in Arlington in early October of this season. Outside of the past two years, the only other meeting between the two schools came in 2018, which resulted in a four-set win for the Mavs.

A PAIR OF ACES
Alyssa Duran produced a UTA season-best five aces against UTRGV on Oct. 28, 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.
 
Meanwhile, freshman Evyn Snook produced a season-best four aces against SFA on Oct. 30, and she has either led or tied for the team-high in aces in each of the past four matches, including two in each of the past three. She has accumulated 12 aces over the past six outings after tallying six total prior to that this season.
 
SHE'S BACK
After missing six matches, senior outside hitter Briana Brown returned to the court against SFA on Oct. 30, producing six kills and two digs over a pair of sets. She produced seven more against CBU on Thursday while also pushing her career termination total to 859, which moves her past Bianca Sauls (852, 2007-10) for 26th place on the program's all-time list. 
   
For the latest news on UTA Volleyball, log on to UTAMavs.com or stay connected to the Mavs on social media. Follow the Mavericks on Twitter @UTAMavsVB, on Instagram @UTAMavsVB and on Facebook at Facebook.com/UTAMavsVB.