North Texas Daily

Brady Keane | Staff Writer

@BradyKeane3

The North Texas women’s volleyball team dropped the first set of the match to Florida International University on Sunday afternoon, but senior captain Carnae Dillard and the Mean Green (17-12, 9-5) bounced back with three straight set wins to clinch a berth in the Conference USA tournament.

Dillard finished with 26 kills, including 10 in the first set alone, in her first match since breaking the North Texas all-time kills record Friday night.

“We were in our system, and it works in our favor when we do what we are supposed to do,” Dillard said. “The ball was where it needed to be, and I just did what I needed to do to put the team in a good position.”

After falling in the opening set, the Mean Green got back on track and pulled out a close win over FIU (13-12, 7-7) 25-23 in the second set. The third set began as another back and forth contest, but North Texas pulled away and went on an 11-1 run to close the set with a dominating 25-15 win.

The Mean Green offense built off of the momentum from the third set to finish out the game and relied on the the play of Dillard and sophomore Holly Milam, who finished the game with 14 kills. Junior captain Amy Henard facilitated the offense throughout the match, and finished with 51 assists.

The Mean Green outhit the Golden Panthers .254 to .176 in the win.

“I think we just started playing really confident,” Milam said. “Everyone just went out there and did what they were supposed to, and we executed well.”

North Texas has two home games against Middle Tennessee State and UTSA this week on Nov. 12 and Nov. 14 in what will serve as the final tune-ups for the C-USA championships in San Antonio Nov. 20-22.

The Mean Green has clinched a spot in the tournament, and the team is currently sitting in fifth place in the conference.

“We need to fine tune everything and bring a lot of energy to the court,” Dillard said. “We have to play Mean Green volleyball.

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