TULSA, Okla. --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (6-2) dropped a pair of matches to Central Arkansas and Tulsa on the opening day of the Tulsa Invitational Friday inside the Reynolds Center.
 
With the result, head coach J.T. Wenger remains three wins shy of 100 in his career while the Mavs had their six-match winning streak to open the season snapped, which was tied for the third-best start to a campaign in program history.
 
UTA will close out the Tulsa Invitational against Oral Roberts on Saturday at 11 a.m.
 
Graduate libero Alli Wells combined for 32 digs on the day, including a team-high 20 in the final while adding three assists in each match. In doing so, she surpassed Jessica Bowlin (1,728, 1995-98) for fifth place on the program's career digs list, and she now sits at 1,745.
 
Meanwhile, Brianna Ford continued her terrific start to the season, posting two more double-doubles to push her career total to 29. In the opener against Central Arkansas, she led the team with 17 kills while adding 15 digs, five blocks and three aces. She then added 11 kills and 10 digs against Tulsa.
 
With her effort, Ford not only became the 25th player in program history to eclipse 900 career kills, but she surpassed Stacey Koch (913, 2012-15) for 24th place on the program's career list.
 
Highlighted by her season-best 47 assists against Central Arkansas, Mollie Blank became the 12th player in program history with at least 1,500 in her career. She will enter Saturday with 1,540, which puts her 25 shy of sliding past Heidi Christensen (1,564, 1993-94) for 11th place all-time.
 
In the opener against Central Arkansas, UTA had several chances to seize control of the match. The first set saw the Mavs take a 24-22 lead only to witness the Sugar Bears score three straight and five of the next six points to take the opening frame.
 
UTA then scored the final seven points of the second set after being down 20-18 to knot the match up at a set apiece, and they had four set points in the third set, but two service errors, a double-touch and an attack error eventually led to a heartbreaking 31-29 defeat.
 
The Mavs responded by dominating the fourth set from start to finish. In the fifth, UCA jumped out to a 9-5 lead, but a Sugar Bear service fault and a kill from Jalie Tritt helped UTA pull within 11-10. From there, though, UCA scored four of the final five points to close it out.
 
Tritt aided Ford with a monster all-around effort, tallying 15 kills, a career-high 16 digs, two blocks and an assist. It was her third double-double of the season. Meanwhile, a pair of freshmen - Alexis Bull (nine kills, .368 hitting) and Evyn Snook (six kills) also contributed.
 
Four Mavs reached double-digit digs including Tritt (16), Ford (15), Alyssa Duran (14) and Wells (12) while Blank fell just two shy of double-digits.
 
Briana Brown led UTA with 13 kills and five digs against Tulsa while Ford posted her double-double. Snook added another solid outing with seven kills and nine digs. Sophie Skinner notched a team-high 23 assists along with three digs. Outside of the 20 digs from Wells, Duran (11) and Ford (10) finished second and third.
 
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