| SPORTS
| November 10, 2004
Volleyball
Roadrunners sweep Mavericks in 3 games
Despite the loss Tuesday, the
team is still third in the conference tournament.
By Britney
Tabor
The Shorthorn Sports Editor
The UT-San Antonio Roadrunners handed the Mavericks volleyball team
its second straight sweep Tuesday.
The Roadrunners won 30-26,30-24 and 30-25 in the Convocation Center.
With this win, UT-San Antonio has a better chance at the sixth final
playoff spot in the Southland Conference Tournament, Nov.19-21,
at Lamar University in Beaumont. UT-San Antonio was tied for the
final spot with Northwestern State, but a loss to Stephen F. Austin
on Tuesday could put the Lady Demons in jeopardy of gaining a No.
6 spot.
The Mavs are now 21-6 overall with a 13-5 conference record. They
are still placed third in the race to the conference tournament.
Without ranking in the No. 1 or No. 2 spot by the end of the regular
season this week, the Mavs will not receive a first-round bye going
into playoffs. The Roadrunners record advances to 14-15 and 10-8
in conference.
Interim head coach Diane Seymour said her team struggled against
UT-San Antonio. The Mavs did not play well defensively, which was
surprising because that has been a strength for them all season,
she said. Seymour said the team also did not put up a good offensive
game, and hopefully it can improve that before its next matches
this weekend.
“We never really got it going,” she said. “We
seemed to be playing on our heels and were maybe a little bit timid.”
The Mavericks were led by outside hitters Ashley Van Antwerp with
12 kills and Morgan Rogers with seven. Outside hitter Caley Smith
led the team in digs with 15 and Rogers added 12. Setter Heather
Dunn gave the Mavericks 34 assists.
The Roadrunners led the Mavericks in total attacks in all three
games of the match. UT-San Antonio finished the match with a .266
attack percentage to UTA’s .204 percentage. The Mavericks
were outnumbered by more than 10 attacks in each game. The Roadrunners
were led by Meagan Daniel with 26 kills and Brandace Cantu and Erin
McMillan who each had 20 digs.
In the Mavericks’ last match with UT-San Antonio Oct.16, UTA
defeated the Roadrunners 3-1. Going into Tuesday’s game, stopping
their outside hitters and exploiting their height advantage was
necessary to a Mavericks win.
Seymour said the Roadrunners played better this time around. She
said before the Mavericks’ next match, they are going to work
harder on the strategies that worked for them earlier in the season.
The team will also prepare for tougher competition against opposing
outside hitters, Seymour said.
“We’re going to work on our defense and put ourselves
in pressure situations,” she said.
Up next for the Mavericks is a match against Nicholls State at 7
p.m. Friday at Texas Hall and a 7 p.m., match Saturday against Southeastern
Louisiana, also at Texas Hall. These two games will be the final
two of the regular season as UTA prepares for next week’s
conference tournament.
Seymour said the best thing for the Mavericks is to come back, rejuvenate
for this weekend’s games and hold onto their seed going into
the conference tournament.
“I think it’s definitely important that we win these
games so we can get some type of winning streak going before going
into the conference tournament,” she said.
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