North Texas Daily

North Texas volleyball closed out their final home game of the season with a win over the Tarleton State University Texans in straight sets Thursday night.

“I think that we did a really good job of staying consistent throughout the match,” team captain Kaliegh Skopal said. “Our hitters stayed really focused on just putting that ball away and being patient when the ball didn’t go down right away.”

The Mean Green attack was a potent one, with the top four hitting percentages coming from players donning the kelly green. Skopal hit at a perfect 1.000 percent on 46 assists, which accounted for 96 percent of the total assists for North Texas.

Senior outside hitter Rhett Robinson led the charge, tallying 22 kills. Senior middle blocker Sarah Haeussler and freshman outside hitter Andrea Owens followed with 11 kills and 9 kills respectively.

North Texas got out to a hot start, winning the first set 25-17 on a .421 hitting percentage. Head coach Andrew Palileo was impressed by the team’s performance in the opening set.

“In the first set, I think we were pretty clean,” Palileo said. “We earned 20 points out of the 25, and every team in the country would be happy with that.”

The Mean Green lost their efficiency in the second set, with 7 errors on 32 attacks putting their hitting percentage at .219, but still managed to win the set by a margin of 25-21, only trailing after the very first point of the set.

Tarleton State began to storm back in the third set, taking a five-point lead midway through, but North Texas counterattacked and never fell behind after the score was tied at 14-14. The set went into extras but the Mean Green took it by a score of 26-24, with Robinson coming to the rescue, scoring 10 of North Texas’ 18 kills in the final set.

“Throughout the season, we’ve seen growth in finishing matches and the end of sets,” Skopal said. “We were willing to fight back and didn’t give up at the beginning.”

The win against the Texans improved the Mean Green’s record to 15-9 on the season and their home record to 8-6. They will face off against the University of Texas-El Paso on Nov. 6-7 to close out the regular season.

Image source Michael Clements/UBSC