Volleyball wins first postseason match in school history
Nearly three weeks ago, North Texas won the regular season conference championship on their home court in straight sets over Middle Tennessee State.
Thursday night they returned home to face Oral Roberts University in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC).
Not playing a match in the past week and a half, the Mean Green (29-3, 13-1) struggled out of the gates to find their rhythm and ended up dropping a set. But in the end, North Texas defeated Oral Roberts (15-14, 11-3) in four sets (25-17, 25-21, 23-25, 25-16).
“I thought the match was pretty sluggish,” head coach Andrew Palileo said. “We had four or five days off but we picked it up a little bit in the middle of those sets to pull away.”
On a night where the big senior hitters of middle blocker Amanda Chamberlain and outside hitter Alexis Wright combined for seven kills on 20 attacks, it was the play of one senior and one freshman who stepped up.
Freshman outside hitter Valerie Valerian had 16 kills on a .282 attack percentage along with 13 digs. Complementing her performance was senior middle blocker Holly Milam, who totaled 16 kills on a .300 attack percentage.
“I worked really hard during the season and I’m just happy it’s paying off,” Valerian said. “Especially right at this moment where we need all the energy and hits we can to survive and advance.”
The Mean Green defense amassed 10 blocks and as a result, Oral Roberts committed 25 errors in the match.
While the Golden Eagles hit for .036, .205 and -.088 in the first, second and fourth sets, they rallied to hit .364 in the third set, which they controlled.
“I think we just came out a little flat,” Milam said. “Nobody is going to give us a game or a point. We have to fight for everything.”
In the fourth set, North Texas continued to look in trouble as they fell behind 5-1 before winning nine of the following 10 points to seize momentum in the game-clinching set.
“In the fourth game I think we really just picked up our side of the net and didn’t let any point go away,” Milam said. “We knew we had to fight for every single point.”
The win marked the first postseason win in school history and the team now turns their attention to the Horned Frogs from Texas Christian University.
“We’re excited we were able to get this first one out of the way,” Palileo said. “Hopefully we can build off of what we did tonight and [we’re] glad the University allowed us to host this, [which] contributed to our first win.”
Next up: North Texas meets TCU at home Friday at 7 p.m. in round two of the NIVC tournament.
Featured Image: North Texas celebrates their four set win over Oral Roberts as the band plays the alma mater. Matthew Brune
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