North Texas Daily

Every player on the court and the bench in a green, long sleeve jersey held the same smile throughout the third set as Abilene Christian University continued to struggle to return routine serves.

Aces, kills, and digs were all executed with casual confidence in a dominant straight set win.

North Texas defeated Abilene Christian 25-10, 25-17, 25-14, and cruised to its eighth straight victory Wednesday night at home.

“I think [we’re] just getting a confidence from everything we’ve been working on and performing in the games,” junior setter Karley York said. “We don’t have a huge target on our back right now so it allows us to relax and do what we’ve been working on.”

To lead the Mean Green (9-1), York posted six kills, two aces and five digs to go along with her 38 assists on the night against Abilene Christian (4-8).

Joining her was freshman outside hitter Valerie Valerian, who had nine kills, three aces, and six digs. She led the Mean Green in all three of those categories.

The team as a whole posted the fourth-highest attack percentage in North Texas history at .482 percent. The offense for the Mean Green was simply clicking on all cylinders.

“We’ve been working really hard in practice on being aggressive and going after the ball,” Valerian said. “And I think that we executed really well tonight.”

North Texas focused in the first set as they set the tone with a 25-10 win and zero errors. That, along with 14 kills, showed were the mindset was for the team.

“When we watched video of Abilene I thought they were a good team and I still think they’re a good team.” head coach Andrew Palileo said. “We just handled the ball on our side of the net and control things from the service line.”

The Mean Green amassed 47 kills and 11 aces in three sets while Abilene Christian had only 24 kills with 15 errors on a .108 attack percentage.

Coming out focused and ready to play has been a constant for North Texas throughout the season as they have repeatedly been able to quickly put teams away. In their last eight matches, the Mean Green have won 24 sets to their opponents’ two.

“Pali always asks us three questions and one is, ‘Did you respect the game?’” York said. “No matter who we’re playing we’re going out with the same intensity, and we’re always going to play our game.”

Next up: North Texas travels to Mississippi to take on Southeastern Louisiana in the opening game of the Mississippi State tournament at 10 a.m. Friday.

Featured Image: Mean Green Volleyball players Karley York (1), Amanda Chamberlain (13), and Barbara Teakell (7) celebrate after scoring a point against Abilene Christian University. Madison Gore