Volleyball falls to UTSA for first C-USA loss
Brady Keane | Staff Writer
After dominating the University of Texas – El Paso on Friday night, the Mean Green women’s volleyball team entered Sunday’s match with the University of Texas at San Antonio looking to remain unbeaten in Conference USA action.
However, the Road Runners jumped out to an early lead and the Mean Green (10-8, 2-1) were unable to build any momentum, falling in three sets (18-25, 15-25, 16-25).
“It seemed like we didn’t have a lot of energy,” head coach Andrew Palileo said. “UTSA played a pretty good match. We got a little impatient offensively, and started forcing some things.”
The Mean Green got off to a slow start as the Road Runners utilized a balanced offensive attack to pull away early and keep the North Texas defense off balance for the majority of the match.
Additionally, the Road Runners were efficient offensively and were able to outhit North Texas .396 to .170. UTSA finished with three players exceeding 10 kills, and junior outside hitter Kasey Kiefer led all players with 15 kills.
“We can’t play scared,” senior captain Carnae Dillard said. “We need to trust in the shots we’ve done before, and work on our confidence taking those in practice.”
Dillard led the way offensively for the Mean Green, finishing with the day with 14 kills while freshman Hannah Shaw and sophomore Alexis Wright each had six kills, and sophomore Holly Milam added five kills. Additionally, freshman Karley York had 19 assists and 9 digs while sophomore Meredith Bramer had 13 digs.
After playing two road games with just one day off in between, the Mean Green will have four days of rest before hosting the Rice Owls (12-4, 2-0) on Oct. 2.
“Playing on the road is always hard, because the other team is in their element,” Wright said. “Our gym is so different from any other in our conference, so being at home is a huge advantage for us.”
Last season, Rice and the Mean Green split the season series. The Owls were able to pick up a win at the Mean Green Volleyball Center before North Texas finished with a straight set victory in Houston later in the year.
“They’ve been playing a pretty tough schedule like we have,” Palileo said. “They’ve played a lot of good teams. As always, I think it will be a dog fight so we just have to come out and be ready to go.”
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