North Texas Daily

North Texas volleyball fell in Houston to Rice University Friday night by a final of 3-1.

The Mean Green (11-13, 5-4) struggled offensively throughout the match against the Owls (16-9, 8-2), and we’re unable to capitalize on any lead.

In the first set, the Owls took an early 11-2 lead and they did not relinquish. The set ended 25-16.

“We didn’t set the ball well initially,” head coach Andrew Palileo said. “When we did set the ball well our hitters were making errors, which dug us into a hole that we couldn’t get out of. That’s hard to ask for any team that is on the road against a pretty good team.”

The beginning of the second set saw several ties and lead changes. After the Owls began to mount an advantage, North Texas called a timeout to regroup, but it was not enough. The Mean Green fell 25-21 in the set.

The third set was neck and neck the entire time, with neither team gaining more than a three point lead. After battling hard, North Texas escaped with a 26-24 win.

The Mean Green could not continue the momentum going into the fourth set, though.

Despite only a slim lead in the beginning, Rice began to pull away after both sides used their timeouts, and the Owls took the fourth set and the match.

“Two parts of our game, passing and defense, were very good tonight,” Palileo said. “We couldn’t sustain offensively off of our good passing, which really put us in a bind.”

Junior middle blocker Holly Milam had 20 kills and 49 total attacks, outnumbering both sides of the net. Junior and freshman middle blockers Amanda Chamberlain and Emma Eakin followed behind Milam with 24 and 28 total kills, respectively.

Next up: North Texas travels to to take on the University of Southern Mississippi at noon on Sunday.