Volleyball Falls to UNT 0-3

Thursday, November 10

Denton, Texas

6 p.m.

UAB

-1213,76 CUSA

North Texas

-1414,85 CUSA

UAB

North Texas

Volleyball Falls to UNT 0-3

11/10/2022 10:26:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Gamebook: UAB at UNT

DENTON – The UAB Volleyball Team closed out their first match of the weekend series with a loss over North Texas in Denton on Thursday night. The Blazers, who fell to a record of 12-13, finished out the match in three sets.

"North Texas played really well tonight. Their passing kept them in system, and we did not answer the call defensively," said head coach Betsy Freeburg. "The biggest disappointment is how we managed the challenge as a team; we certainly need to do better moving forward."

IN THE SETS
The Blazers started off slow in the first set, with them dropping to an 0-1 start with a 19-25 loss. The two squads stayed within close quarters, with an early 4-3 lead in favor of the Mean Green. However, UAB dropped two points off errors to give UNT the 10-8 lead. The Mean Green continued their momentum with a 4-0 run, followed by a hitting percentage of .323 put North Texas on pace to take the early 1-0 lead.

In set two, UAB fought back early, battling back to tie the score at eight apiece, but UNT responded with a three-point run to halt the momentum. The Blazers trailed by as much as five, but stayed in close quarters with the Mean Green. A series of errors from North Texas put the Blazers within two before an error from Maia Rackel halted the progress. The set continued at a back and forth pace before UNT got within a set point off a kill. Another attack error from the Blazers gave the Mean Green a 25-21 win.

The third and final set saw UAB jumping out in front first, but UNT responded with a 3-0 run to regain the lead. The score remained within a one-point margin before a series of kills partnered with errors from the Green and Gold put UAB behind, 10-15. The Mean Green continued to keep their foot on the gas before taking an eight-point lead off another 4-0 run. North Texas continued to progress towards the match point off another run before securing the set and match off an ace.

IN THE BOX
The Blazers closed out the match with a hitting percentage of .203, with the highest hitting percentage coming from freshman Jay Collins, who hit for .500. Kelsey Smith followed behind with a hitting percentage of .429, with a total of seven kills for the Green and Gold. The Mean Green hit for .296 as a team with a total of 46 kills to the Blazers 31.

Stat leaders from the Blazers include Erin Powers who led in digs with eight. On the offensive, Maia Rackel led the team in kills with eight off of 29 attack attempts. Alex Kells and Kelsey Smith who both finished with seven kills apiece.

QUOTES FROM BETSY FREEBURG
"Kelsey Smith did a great job tonight improving from last week and really had some big kills for us. She is getting more comfortable in this new role and that's making us better going into UTEP and the C-USA tournament."
"Going into UTEP, we need to continue to get comfortable offensively in this new lineup starting with the passing. When we pass better it will allow us to diversify our offense more."

UP NEXT
The Blazers travel to El Paso to take on the UTEP Miners on Saturday Nov. 12 at 12 p.m.

To keep up to the UAB Volleyball Team, follow @UAB_VB on Instagram and Twitter.