EL PASO, TEXAS --- Brianna Ford and Paige Reagor combined for 34 kills as the UT Arlington volleyball team (21-10) breezed past Florida Atlantic 25-20, 25-22, 25-18 in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) inside UTEP's Memorial Gym on Friday.
 
With the victory, the Mavs achieved the program's highest single season win total since 2014 and the second best in nearly 20 years. They advance to face UTEP at 3 p.m. on Saturday for a berth in the quarterfinals.
 
Reagor, who finished with 14 kills at a .619 clip, was hot from the start as the senior contributed three kills to give the Mavs a 7-6 lead. After Sophie Ocampo recorded one of her three first-set terminations, the teams traded mini-runs to set up a 14-13 UTA lead.
 
Back-and-forth action then resulted in a tie at 19, but the Mavs took control from there. Ford and Ocampo got it started with back-to-back kills as UTA ultimately scored six of the final seven points, which included two more kills from Ford.
 
UTA hit. 400 in the opening set as Ford (5), Reagor (4) and Ocampo (3) combined for 12 of the team's 16 kills. El Paso native Alyssa Duran added an ace in the frame, as well.
 
Florida Atlantic (20-13) held four separate leads early in the second set, resulting in an 8-6 lead for the Owls. From there, however, Kortney Puckett inserted her control on the match by playing a role in four consecutive blocks for UTA, who then got kills from Ocampo and Ford to completed a 7-0 run that saw them take a 13-8 advantage.
 
The Owls didn't quit as a 7-1 run helped the Boca Raton, Fla. natives take a 20-19 lead, which led to a tie at 22 apiece. UTA calmly clinched the set, however, with three straight terminations from Jalie Tritt, Ford and Reagor.
 
The third set featured three ties early, but the Mavs broke things open with a 6-0 run to take a 15-7 lead. From there, they never trailed again and ultimately clinched the match on an FAU service error.
 
Ford, who hammered FAU with 10 kills and an .833 hitting percentage in the third set alone, recorded her 12th double-double over the past 14 matches with 20 kills, 13 digs, six blocks and an ace while hitting .472. It was the 44th double-double of her career, moving her past Torie Dacus and Colleen Farrell for the ninth-most in program history since 1985.
 
Reagor notched her 11th match with double-digit kills over the past 12 outings, the past eight in which she's hitting .535.
 
Mollie Blank added 38 assists, 10 digs, three kills and a block for her seventh double-double of the season and the 29th of her career. It's also her fourth such performance over the past seven outings, and she eclipsed 1,000 assists on the season.
 
Alli Wells chipped in 10 digs and five assists to push her program record career dig total to 2,086. Tritt (8) and Duran (7) added a combined 15 digs.
 
NOTES
The Mavs are now 6-2 all-time in the NIVC following previous appearances in 2019 and 1992. With a win on Saturday, they can join the 2019 team with quarterfinal appearances in the tournament.
 
Ford pushed her season double-double total to 18 while moving within six digs of 900 in her career. She also improved her all-time kill total to 1,268, which moves her past Teresa Ogden (1,251, 1982-83) for 11th place in program history. She needs 30 more for sole possession of 10th place, which is currently held by her former teammate, Brooke Townsend (1,297, 2018-22).

This was the first-ever meeting between UTA and FAU. 

UTEP advanced to the round of 16 with a win over North Texas on Friday.
   
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