North Texas Daily

Brady Keane | Staff Writer.

@BradyKeane3

After losing a tough match against Boise State University in the North Texas Invitational opener on Friday night, the Mean Green bounced back with a sloppy win over Abilene Christian University (25-18, 21-25, 25-23, 22-25, 15-9) before dropping the finale to the University of Houston (20-25, 18-25, 25-27) to finish 1-2 in the tournament.

Holly Milliam goes airborne in Saturday morning’s win against Abilene Christian. Matthew Brown | Staff Photographer

Boise St. finished 3-0 over the weekend to capture the North Texas Invitational Championship.

“I though we could have done better,” North Texas head coach Andrew Palileo said. “Houston was a team that thought they could beat us, and they did. We just came out a little flat.”

Senior captain Carnae Dillard continued her dominant season throughout the weekend, moving into fourth all-time in North Texas history with 1,151 career digs.

“I actually didn’t know that,” Dillard said. “The loss kind of takes away from that, but it’s a good accomplishment. It’s just cool to think about.”

Despite kicking off day two with a win over ACU (0-9), the Mean Green (5-6) did not look crisp and struggled with errors in a back and forth contest. North Texas was never able to build comfortable lead over the Wildcats.

After entering the fourth set with a 2-1 lead, North Texas was unable to close out the match with a win. Instead, ACU fought back to force a decisive fifth set. From there, the always-energetic sophomore Alexis Wright took over and stepped up to lead the Mean Green to victory. Wright’s play in the fifth set was a key factor in the Mean Green win, and she finished the match with 10 kills.

In addition to the strong play from Wright, freshman Karley York shined in her first extended time on the court this season. York finished with a career high 43 assists in the win over ACU.

“I hadn’t really gotten the opportunity to set,” York said. “It was good to come out and be able to help out my team with a win.”

Although the Mean Green was able to overcome errors against ACU, it was a different story against Houston.

The Cougars dominated the Mean Green at the net, out blocking North Texas 9-4. The Cougars also out hit the Mean Green .250 to .176 on the night. Dillard and junior captain Amy Henard led the way offensively for the Mean Green, while York added eight assists and five digs and sophomore Chelsea Abii had six kills.

The Mean Green will host Stephen F. Austin University on Sept. 16 before traveling to Tulsa for the Tulsa Volleyball Invitational on Sept. 18-19.

Featured Image: UNT’s Volleyball team took down visiting Abilene Christian University Saturday morning. Matthew Brown | Staff Photographer