ARLINGTON, TEXAS --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (11-3, 0-1 WAC) came up just short against the defending regular season conference champions, UTRGV (7-7, 1-0), inside the College Park Center on Thursday in a 25-16, 25-23, 18-25, 25-23 loss in the WAC opener.
 
The Mavs received a match-best 15 kills from Brianna Ford, who added four blocks and four digs while moving within four kills of 1,000 in her career. Paige Reagor, who was making her home season debut after missing nine non-conference matches, tallied 10 kills, six blocks and six digs while redshirt freshman Sophie Ocampo added 10 kills and six digs at a .476 clip.
 
The duo of Mollie Blank (23) and Sophie Skinner (16) finished with 39 assists while Alli Wells added nine to go along with her match-high 17 digs. In fact, she finished within one distribution of matching her career high. Blank (nine digs) joined Wells in falling just shy of a double-double.
 
In the opening set, UTRGV scored the match's first five points and eventually led 13-3. Despite UTA pulling within seven on five occasions down the stretch, the Vaqueros claimed the set in relatively easy fashion.
 
UTRGV continued the momentum in the next set, jumping out to a 6-3 lead, but back-to-back kills from Ford helped the Mavs score the next four points. An ace from Wells gave UTA a 14-10 lead in a back-and-forth set.
 
The Vaqueros responded and took an 18-17 lead but a kill from Ocampo, and back-to-back kills from Reagor and Briana Brown, gave UTA a 23-21 lead. From there, though, a service error opened the door for UTRGV to score the final four points and claim a two-set lead.
 
The third set featured a breakout from Reagor, who produced five kills at a .444 clip, two digs and a pair of blocks. One of those terminations and a stuff came during a 5-0 run that gave the Mavs a 15-9 lead. From there, UTA never trailed before a triple block from Reagor, Ocampo and Evyn Snook forced a fourth set.
 
In the fourth set, a lengthy challenge review went in favor of UTA to tie it at one apiece, but UTRGV reeled off four straight and eventually took a 19-13 lead. A termination from Ocampo helped the Mavs respond with seven of the next eight points to tie things at 20. Ocampo added another for a 23-22 lead as UTA looked for force a fifth set, but the Vaqueros scored the final three points to claim the match.
 
NOTES
With her performance, Wells pushed her career dig total to 1,846, which puts her 42 shy of moving past Amber Pack (1,887, 1999-02) for third place on the program's al-time list. Alicia Shaffer (2,033, 2008-11) and Ashley Smith (1,921, 2003-06) reside in the top two spots.
 
The Mavs, which dropped their first home match of the season (6-1), also fell to 5-2 all-time against UTRGV in a series that dates back to a 1976 neutral site matchup.
 
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