Aug. 31, 2009

Arkansas Match Notes

ARLINGTON, Texas -

FIRST SERVE
UT Arlington travels to Fayetteville to face Arkansas on Tuesday after going 1-2 in its opening weekend at the Illinois State Redbird Classic in Normal, Ill. The Mavericks dropped their first two matches to Oral Roberts (3-0) and Illinois State (3-1) before sweeping Gardner-Webb to take third place in the tournament.

INSIDE THE SERIES
Tuesday marks just the third all-time meeting between UT Arlington and Arkansas. The Razorbacks hold a 2-0 lead in the series with a four-set victory in Fayetteville (11/29/96) and a three-set sweep in Arlington (9/13/98). The Mavericks are an even 20-20 against teams from the Southeastern Conference.

UT ARLINGTON MAVERICKS
Overall Record: 1-2
Conference Record: 0-0
Last 5/Last 10: 1-2/1-2
Streak: Won 1
AVCA Ranking: N/A
Website: www.utamavs.com
Head Coach: Diane Seymour
Career Record: 82-74 (6th year)
Record at UTA: 82-74 (6th year)

ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS
Overall Record: 1-2
Conference Record: 0-0
Last 5/Last 10: 1-2/1-2
Streak: Won 1
AVCA Ranking: N/A
Website: www.ArkansasRazorbacks.com
Head Coach: Robert Pulliza
Career Record: 8-25 (2nd year)
Record at Arkansas: 8-25 (2nd year)

TAKING A LOOK BACK
UT Arlington finished third place at the Illinois State Redbird Classic with a three-set sweep over Gardner-Webb in its final match on Saturday. The Mavs cruised to their first win of the season with a 25-20, 25-16, 25-13 victory. The Mavs held the Bulldogs to just 13 points in the final set, marking the first time a Mavs' opponent had scored less than 14 points in a set since South Carolina State scored just 13 points in the fourth set on Sept. 13, 2008, at Texas Hall.

ON THE HORIZON
Following the Mavericks' midweek match against the Arkansas Razorbacks, UT Arlington will stay on the road, but will have a quick turnaround time, as they travel to Fort Collins, Colo., for the Colorado State Hilton Classic to face Georgia Southern (Sept. 4), Colorado State (Sept. 5) and Ohio State (Sept. 5) at Moby Arena.

MAVS HOLD BULLDOGS TO LOWEST HITTING PERCENTAGE SINCE 2005 SEASON-OPENER
It had been 124 matches since UT Arlington had held an opponent to a lower hitting percentage than they did against Gardner-Webb on Saturday. The Mavericks held Gardner-Webb to a .009 hitting percentage (24 kills - 23 errors - 108 attacks), which is the lowest mark for a Mavericks' opponent since Prairie View A&M hit -.019 (31 kills - 34 errors - 155 attacks) on Aug. 27, 2005, in the 2005 season opener.

SPEAKING OF LOW TOTALS IN SEASON OPENERS
UTA opened its 2008 season with a sweep over Jackson State, who they held to a .062 hitting percentage (27 kills - 22 errors - 81 attacks), which was the lowest by any opponent in 2008.

Bianca Sauls NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Junior Bianca Sauls was named to the Illinois State Redbird Classic All-Tournament team after leading the Mavericks averaging 3.8 kills and 2.7 digs per set. Sauls started the tourney with a team-high 13 kills and .393 hitting percentage and eight digs against Oral Roberts, the eventual tourney champ. She then had her top performance on the weekend with a match-high 19 kills and five blocks in a four-set loss to host-Illinois State. Sauls finished tourney play with six kills and tied for a team-high with 13 digs against Gardner-Webb. It is the third straight all-tournament team selection for Sauls, who was also honored at last season's Mean Green Classic and San Francisco Asics/Powerade Challenge.

NINE MAVERICKS WITH A KILL
UT Arlington picked up its first victory of the 2009 season with a balanced offensive attack against Gardner-Webb with nine different players recording a kill. It is something that happened just three times for the Mavs in 2008 (1-2 record in those matches), and on Saturday UTA notched 43 kills as a team with no player tallying more than eight. Emily Shearin, Alicia Shaffer and Eld-hah Kaswatuka all led the team with eight apiece.

DOUBLE-THREAT
Junior setter Raegan Daniel continued to be a multi-use weapon for the Mavericks as she notched two straight double-doubles in the Mavs' final two matches last weekend. Daniel, who led the Mavs and ranked fifth in the SLC with 11 double-doubles last season, had 30 assists and 11 digs against Illinois State and 32 assists and 13 digs against Gardner-Webb.

SWITCHING ROLES
Alicia Shaffer began her collegiate career starting 29-of-30 matches as the starting libero for the Mavs in 2008. Now Shaffer will look to help the Mavs at the outside hitter position. She led the Mavs with 15 digs in their season opener as the libero and then moved to outside hitter for the final two matches last weekend. She followed with two near double-doubles, tallying eight kills and 12 digs against Illinois State and eight kills and nine digs against Gardner-Webb.

OFFENSE IS NOW AN OPTION
Emily Shearin entered the Mavs' freshman record books as a freshman with 104 total blocks, including 92 block assists that rank fourth among all UTA freshmen. Offensively she recorded just 81 kills (0.74 kps) in 2008. In three matches this season, Shearin has shown her offense will be a key asset to the Mavs' offense. She currently ranks third on the team with 18 kills, averaging 1.8 kills per set. In addition, she is averaging 2.5 digs and 0.4 blocks per set.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
UT Arlington has become accustomed to playing on the road early in the season. To open the 2007 season, the Mavs played 12 of their first 13 matches away from home while last season UTA played all of its first seven matches away from Texas Hall. In 2007 and 2008 combined, UTA has recorded a respectful 9-10 record. This season UTA plays its first seven matches before opening their 2009 home schedule against UALR and Oklahoma on Sept. 12.