North Texas Daily

Torie Mosley |Staff Writer

@toriemosley

Mean Green Volleyball hit double digits in the win column Friday night taking down the University of Texas at El Paso in three straight sets. The team’s 10th win on the season makes them 9-4 since starting the year off 1-3.

North Texas senior outside hitter Carnae Dillard once again led the Mean Green to victory behind her 25 kills and 13 digs. Junior setter Amy Henard also chipped in 22 assists and seven digs on the night.

With sophomore middle blocker Amanda Chamberlain missing in action due to injury, her teammates didn’t take much time to fill the stat sheet.

North Texas won the first set 25-19, its widest margin of victory all night. Dillard connected on three of the team’s first six points and added seven digs in the first set. Henard led the team with 12 assists and two blocks along with three first set blocks from sophomore middle blocker Holly Milam.

Dillard said she felt glad to see the team respond early collectively with Chamberlain out of the match.

“We all worked together as a team and made it look easy,” Dillard said. “It’s good to see us step up for Amanda being out.”

Dillard opened the second set with the Mean Green’s first kill and a closer set pursued until North Texas called a timeout down 10-9, its first deficit since the first point of the match.

Dillard recorded the first kill out of the timeout and five of the last six points for the Mean Green’s second set before freshman outside hitter Hannah Shaw clinched the second set for North Texas with a kill.

The third set began with another hot start from Dillard with four of the Mean Green’s first seven points. UTEP almost pulled away with its biggest lead of the match up 14-11 before five straight kills by Dillard to take the lead late in the final set.

UTEP came back to tie the score 19-19 before the Mean Green would score four straight points to go up 23-19. A Dillard kill and UTEP attack error would wrap up the match for North Texas leaving El Paso with a 3-0 sweep.

Head coach Andrew Palileo said having a star player like Dillard on the squad is an honor.

“It’s special to coach Carnae,” he said. “The game is easy for her and she keeps improving her game.”

Despite North Texas leaving El Paso with a sweep, Henard said UTEP did not go down easy.

“UTEP was scrappy,” she said. “They were never going to give up. We should have stopped them early on before they caught up but we cleaned our play up and got the job done.”

The Mean Green bring their 10-7 record to Dillard’s home town of San Antonio to take on UTSA Sunday. The Alamo city native said she’s excited to play in front of her family and friends but will not take UTSA lightly.

“We always do bad whenever we play them,” she said. “But yesterday was my birthday and I have people coming out to watch the match. We’re going to give a good fight this time.”

Kick off for the contest in San Antonio starts Sunday at 1.

Featured Image: File Photo | Ryan Vance