North Texas Daily

Ehsan Azad / Staff Writer

The Mean Green volleyball team couldn’t carry over its three-win success in the North Texas Invitational tournament as it was swept by metroplex rivals Texas Christian University in a matchup on Wednesday night.

UNT (5-4) was in position to win all three sets (21-25, 20-25, 19-25), but made too many errors that helped TCU (4-3) take the match.

“The basic fundamentals of volleyball, we just didn’t do well on them today,” junior outside hitter Hannah Forst said. “On that last set, we didn’t focus on the easy plays.”

Head coach Andrew Palileo indicated the match went awry from the first set. The team came back from a five-point deficit and was tied at 20 but was unable to take the lead.

“We made too many mistakes in crucial times, even coming back from a 6-1 deficit and putting ourselves in a position to win that set, we just missed too many sets,” Palileo said.

Sophomore outside hitter Carnae Dillard said mental errors were a problem and that trust among the team is needed for them to succeed. She had nine kills and 11 digs on the night, but committed four attack errors.

Forst had eight kills, senior outside hitter Courtney Windham had six kills and four blocks and senior libero Shelby Tamura added 17 digs.

This is the first time the two schools played since 2006 when North Texas lost 2-3 to the Horned Frogs.  In-state rivalries are important to the players and can have an impact on local recruiting, Dillard said.

“Anytime you lose to someone in your state, it’s hard,” Dillard said. “But you got to give them respect, they came out hard and did their thing, we just need to work harder as a team.”

The game was also televised regionally on Fox Sports Southwest.

The Mean Green will move forward and travel to Boise, Idaho, for the Boise State Tournament this Friday. Their first match up is against Sacramento State University at 11 a.m.

Box score

Feature photo courtesy of Rick Yeattes