North Texas Daily

The North Texas volleyball team won a tough five-set match Tuesday night against a resilient University of Texas at Arlington team.

The Mean Green (2-3) pounced on the Mavericks (2-2) in the first two sets, winning them by the scores of 25-16 and 25-18. However, after the teams came out of the intermission, the Mavericks rallied and turned the tide in part due to Mean Green mistakes.

“We became tentative and a little complacent and they took advantage of that,” head coach Andrew Palileo said. “We became predictable because we didn’t pass the ball as well, so they took advantage of it and they blocked us a lot on the pins.”

UT-Arlington began to cut down the mistakes and forced North Texas out of their comfort zone by constantly blocking Mean Green kills. The Mavericks took the third and fourth sets 25-12 and 25-19 and only made seven errors in those two sets.

In the fifth set, the two teams traded kills with each other and North Texas pulled out the set 15-13. The taxing win may not have been pretty, but senior setter Amy Henard understands that winning is going to be a team effort every game.

“This year is going to be everyone, it’s not just going to rely on one specific person, but it’s going to be a team effort,” Henard said. “One person may be down one game and the next person will step up and vice versa in the next [game].”

Although there were challenging stretches in the game, the team used their athleticism over UT-Arlington and capitalized on numerous Maverick mistakes. Juniors Alexis Wright and Amanda Chamberlain combined for 31 kills, and Wright understood what was working, especially early on.

“We did a really good job serve-receiving the first two sets, all of the passes were there and our setters were making good decisions, our middles were running, opening up a lot of seams for us,” Wright said. “That’s why everything was going in our favor because our setters were making the right choices.”

While Palileo was pleased with the victory, he does not want his team to become pedestrian in how they prepare for games.

“We talk a lot about the process, and making sure that we do the right things,” Palileo said. “So that when you get in those moments we’re confident in the moves and in the technique that we’re using.”

Next up: North Texas travels to play in the Utah Valley Tournament. Their first match is slated for 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 2 against Utah State.