Mean Green volleyball splits day one of home invitational

September 06

23:18 2013

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John Lugo / Intern

On the first day of North Texas Invitational in Denton, the Mean Green volleyball team split its two games with a win against Prairie View A&M University and a loss against University of Utah.

Prairie View A&M

UNT completed a sweep against Prairie View, winning in three sets (25-21, 25-22, 25-15). Sophomore outside hitter Katie Dudding brought the team back in the first set win, marking a career-high four kills in the set and finishing with six overall.

Dudding said the blocking was what fueled the UNT offense against Prairie View and was glad that she was able to help the team click on all aspects of the game.

“Whenever [coach] put me in for Eboni [Godfrey] in front row I was kind of surprised, but I knew I had to perform,” Dudding said.

Utah

Against Utah, the Mean Green lasted four sets, but ended up losing 1-3 (22-25, 19-25, 25-21, 16-25).

Down 18-9 in the first set, UNT pulled within two points but ended up losing 22-25. Utah took the second set 25-19 and the Mean Green was able to snag the third set 25-21.

The fourth set played out the same as original two with Utah winning 25-16 to seal the match. Head coach Andrew Palileo said the problem was not staying consistent with applying pressure to Utah.

“We did that [apply pressure] in the beginning of each set but not throughout the whole set,” Palileo said. “Any time you let up a little bit, teams like Utah will take advantage of that. We did some things a little bit better than Prairie View, but we still have a ways to go.”

Freshman setter Amy Henard said while the team is making progress and has learned a lot from this season already, they still must focus on trusting and sticking with the game plan.

“We just need to learn to follow our game plan, what we have going, and be on our toes the whole time because these next two teams we can compete with just like we can compete with Utah,” Henard said. “I think there are still some little things we need to work out but definitely we’re making progress.

Day two of the Invitational comes Saturday as the team faces Northwestern State University at 11 a.m. and Texas State University at 7 p.m. Both games will be held in the Mean Green Volleyball Complex.

Feature photo by Aidan Barrett / Senior Staff Photographer