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SPORTS
| November 4, 2003
Volleyball
Loss drops Mavs into tie for second
The volleyball team ‘controls
its fate’ as another losing game may spoil chances for a playoff
bye.
By Jon
Cromer
The Shorthorn sports editor
The volleyball team split its weekend road matches — defeating
Southeastern Louisiana 3-1 on Friday and dropping a five-game decision
to Nicholls State on Saturday.
The Mavericks (11-5) remain in second place in the conference. With
the loss, they are now joined by UT-San Antonio (11-5) and Stephen
F. Austin (11-5) — all tied beneath league leader Texas State
(14-1).
If UTA wins the remainder of its games, it will claim second place
and earn the Mavericks a first-round bye in the postseason conference
tournament in San Antonio from Nov. 21 to 23. The top six teams
of the 11-team league compete in the tournament.
“We control our own fate on whether we get a first-round bye
or not,” head coach Janine Smith said. “If we don’t
win out, then we come up with tie-breaker situations, and we will
have to hope for some help. I like the position we are in where
we control our own fate.”
Freshman Ashley Smith’s career-high 32 defensive digs coupled
with senior Melissa Robinett’s 19 kills helped UTA to the
victory over Southeastern Louisiana and extended the Mavericks’
winning streak to five matches.
“We played really well against them, and it was a fun match,”
junior Caley Smith said. “The first game was a little bit
rough, but after that I thought we played a pretty good match. It
was one of those matches that was exciting to watch as well as play.”
The Mavericks lost game one 29-31 but won the second game 30-19
and never looked back. Sophomore Ashley Van Antwerp came in off
the bench to spark UTA with a career-best 14-kill effort.
“Ashley Van Antwerp came in and played extremely well on the
outside for us,” coach Smith said.
Heather Dunn recorded 59 assists to go along with 20 digs, and seniors
Elizabeth Davis (21) and Julie Felts (17) each added double-digit
digs. Caley Smith turned in 16 kills and 17 digs, and senior Mindy
Hubik had 11 kills.
“I felt like we played pretty well against Southeastern,”
coach Smith said. “We played more like a team. Our chemistry
was going good, and we were competing well and having fun out there.”
Then, a different team showed up Saturday, she said of the loss
to Nicholls State.
The Mavericks were able to win games one and two before poor play
caught up with them as they lost the final three games of the match.
“Even though we won games one and two, we weren’t playing
very well,” coach Smith said. “We never allowed ourselves
to get a rhythm going and really play well or even play average.
If we would have picked it up just a little bit, I think we could
have got out of there with a win.”
Sophomore Stephanie Miklis led the team with 19 kills, and Davis
recorded a team-high 21 digs and 13 kills. Dunn had her first triple-double
with 60 assists, 11 digs and 11 kills.
“Last time we lost to Nicholls, I thought it was our defense.
This time we just couldn’t get anything going,” Caley
Smith said. “It didn’t feel like we had any energy out
there.”
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| Junior
Heather Dunn earned a triple-double against Nicholls
State with 60 assists, 11 kills, and 11 digs.
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