OREM, Utah --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (12-4, 1-2 WAC) will look to even out its conference record with a road matchup at Utah Valley (4-10, 1-2 WAC) at 2 p.m. inside the Lockhart Arena on Saturday.
EMERALD CITY PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1
Senior middle blocker
Kortney Puckett continued her domination of Seattle U on Thursday with a season-high 11 kills, a .529 hitting percentage and a season-high seven blocks. In two career games – both on the road - against the Redhawks, she has 22 kills, a .487 hitting percentage, 13 blocks and eight digs.
THE TERMINATOR
In Monday's match at SFA,
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. With her 17 kills at Seattle U on Thursday, the senior outside hitter now has 1,019 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 1,858, the Waxahachie native sits in fourth place, just 20 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 1,765, 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 817 kills, including 157 this year at a career-best 2.96 per set. In fact, she's already just 33 terminations from matching her total from all of last year.
FRESHMEN MAKING AN IMPACT
A pair of true freshmen –
Evyn Snook and
Alexis Bull – have combined to appear in 25 matches this year.
Snook is claiming 1.4 kills and 1.33 digs per set from the outside. She has four matches with at least six kills, including a season-best nine while hitting .316 at Texas Southern on Sept. 12. She also had a season-high nine digs against Tulsa on Sept. 8, and she's averaging 2.2 kills and 1.8 digs per match in conference play.
Bull, who has made eight starts in the middle, is hitting .265 with 1.37 kills and 0.43 blocks per set. She had a season-best nine terminations against Central Arkansas on Sept. 8 while producing a high of four blocks in a win over Texas Southern on Sept. 12.
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
UTA and Utah Valley began their series history last year with the Wolverines claiming victories in both meetings, including a postseason victory in the WAC Tournament. This will be their second matchup in Orem, which is also where the conference tournament is being held later this season.
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 103-82 career record into the Utah Valley 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 have 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 1,151-686-8 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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