Stephen F. Austin
Texas-Arlington
Ladyjacks Fall To Mavs
10/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 27, 2010
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Despite a season high 18 kills from Arielle Daron, the Ladyjack volleyball team dropped its second straight match on Wednesday, falling to UT-Arlington 3-2 (19-25, 25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 15-10) at Johnson Coliseum.
The loss evens up the series with the Mavericks (11-14, 5-6), who fell at Texas Hall by a 3-1 score to SFA (11-15, 4-7) exactly two weeks ago. With the win, UTA snaps a 10-match losing streak to SFA dating back to 2004, as well as an eight-match losing streak in Nacogdoches dating all the way back to the 2000 season.
Daron continued to impress offensively, backing consecutive matches with 17 kills last week with an 18-kill outing on 48 swings (.250) against the Mavs. MC Bottles was right behind her with 14, but no other Ladyjack finished with more than nine scores with the Ladyjacks swinging at just a .140 percentage for the match.
Monica Pannone hit the 20-dig mark for the first time in her career while Melissa Miksch made her first start in the libero jersey, filling in for the injured Madison Hanlan and picked up 22 digs of her own. Allison Gideon had a double-double from the setting position, getting credit for 41 assists and 11 digs to go along with six kills and six blocks.
Meanwhile, Amanda Aguilera finished as the only Mav with a double-double for the night, tallying not only 23 kills, but 23 assists while UTA finished with a solid .230 attack percentage for the night.
SFA came out on fire in the first set, hitting .340 and landing 20 kills to take a1-0 lead. But SFA could not put together consecutive positive sets and hit just .056 in the second while the Mavs swung over .200 for the second consecutive frame to knot things up heading into the half.
The Ladyjacks led wire-to-wire in the third set, getting a combined nine kills from Daron and Bottles to take a 2-1 lead into the fourth set for the third consecutive match; however, for the second straight outing SFA was not able to close the deal and after UTA hit nearly .300 in cruising to a fourth-set victory, they used a 6-1 run to snap a 9-9 tie in the fifth set and even the season series at one match apiece.
SFA still holds the tiebreaker in the series, should it be needed for postseason purposes due to the Ladyjacks winning in just four sets in Arlington.
Next up for the Ladyjacks is the defending SLC Tournament champion, Texas State, who will come to Johnson Coliseum for a 6:00 p.m. match on Saturday.
-SFA-
