UT Arlington Begins CSU Volleyball Classic on Friday

Mavericks take on Georgia Southern, Colorado State and Ohio State in Fort Collins, Colo.

Emily Shearin leads the Mavericks with six aces this season
 
Emily Shearin leads the Mavericks with six aces this season
  

Sept. 2, 2009

Colorado State Hilton Classic Match Notes Get Acrobat Reader

ARLINGTON, Texas -

FIRST SERVE
UT Arlington remains on the road this weekend playing its fifth, sixth and seventh matches of the season - all away from Texas Hall - with a trip to Fort Collins, Colo., for the Colorado State Hilton Classic at Moby Arena. The Mavericks will take on Georgia Southern (Sept. 4), Colorado State (Sept. 5) and Ohio State (Sept. 5).

INSIDE THE SERIES
The Mavericks have never played Georgia Southern and have a combined nine matches of experience against CSU and Ohio State entering this weekend. UT Arlington is 3-1 against Colorado State with the most recent meeting coming in Arlington in 1993. The Mavs and Buckeyes last met in Provo, Utah, in 1987, in an Ohio State victory, despite UTA leading the all-time series, 3-2. UTA's only victory against CSU came in Fort Collins and all of their meetings against Ohio State have come on a neutral court.

TAKING A LOOK BACK
UT Arlington suffered a three-set sweep against Arkansas on Tuesday in Fayetteville for the Razorbacks home-opener. Arkansas led by a narrow margin early in the first and second sets (8-11 in the first set; 9-11 in second set) before breaking open the match and grabbing a 2-0 lead with two big runs midway through the first two sets. The Razorbacks finished off the win with a convincing 25-11 third-set win. The Razorbacks held the Mavs to a .034 hitting percentage while hitting .378. UTA was led by Eld-hah Kaswatuka, who had six kills and a .333 hitting percentage. Alicia Shaffer led UTA with nine digs and Raegan Daniel posted 13 assists.

NEW FACES ON THE MAVS' 2009 SCHEDULE
Entering the 2009 season, UT Arlington had faced 193 different opponents in 36 seasons of volleyball. This year the Mavs will face three new opponents with Gardner-Webb, Georgia Southern and Texas Southern. The Mavericks defeated Gardner-Webb last weekend in the Illinois State Redbird Classic and now face Georgia Southern at the CSU Hilton Classic. Last season UT Arlington was schedule to play Texas Southern, but due to hurricane evacuations the Tigers were unable to travel to Arlington, therefore, the Mavericks replaced Texas Southern with Houston for their home tournament.

HIGH HITTING PERCENTAGE = WINS
UT Arlington had a consistent trend last season, when they led their opponent in hitting percentage they typically won, but when trailing it was the Mavericks on the losing end. In 2008, UTA went 7-2 when tallying a higher hitting percentage and went 0-21 when trailing. This season the trend has continued with the Mavericks 1-0 when leading and 0-3 when trailing.

DROPPING EM' IN
Sophomore Emily Shearin leads the Mavericks with six service aces this season. She has had at least one ace in her last three matches and has led the team the past two matches with a season-high three against Gardner-Webb and with two on the road at Arkansas. Last season Shearin tied for second on the team with 14 aces.

NEW POSITION - SAME RESULTS
Sophomore Alicia Shaffer started her third consecutive match at outside hitter against Arkansas and for the second time this season led the team in digs with nine. Shaffer, the team's libero a year ago, led the Mavericks on the season with 387 digs and was the team-leader in digs in 18 matches. Shaffer's 387 digs placed her fifth on the all-time UTA freshman list.

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.

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 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.