Mean Green volleyball has a chance for revenge in the C-USA tournament
Ehsan Azad / Staff Writer
There will be no first-round bye in the Conference USA tournament for the Mean Green volleyball team this year, but UNT has a chance to avenge a regular season loss to Florida Atlantic University at the end of the regular season.
Losing to Florida International University and FAU last weekend dropped the Mean Green (16-14, 8-6) to the fifth seed, which means the team plays in the first-round against FAU on Thursday.
“We have just been trying to get back to what got us into that four match winning streak which is our defense and the tempo of the match,” head coach Andrew Palileo said.
Palileo said that there is little advantage of playing a team again, aside from the scouting report being similar. The two teams are already familiar opponents, with both making the shift from the Sun Belt Conference to C-USA over the summer.
But the players are excited for the opportunity to play FAU once more.
“We are going to be pretty successful tomorrow,” junior outside hitter Hanna Forst said. “We are all very excited.”
Forst said the team just needs to work on the simple things. The team has to match the same intensity as other opponents, and Forst said that the do-or-die situation has awoken the team.
“If we just go out and play to our game plan and our tempo, we will be fine,” sophomore outside hitter Carnae Dillard said.
Dillard said the key is just to execute the game plan and play a faster tempo than the opponents.
The team is embracing the single-elimination atmosphere that the conference tournament brings out.
“I hope we play like every match is our last and our seniors step-up. It’s going to be a great journey this week,” Forst said.
UNT plays FAU at 2 p.m. in the first round at the Murphy Center Complex in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
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