Volleyball Advances To Second Round of NIVC

Thursday, November 29

7 pm

University of North Texas

18-16

University of Tulsa

19-12

Tulsa

North Texas

11/29/2018 9:46:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Season

DENTON - The 2018 season will live to see another day as the North Texas Volleyball Team beat Tulsa 3-1 (13-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-21) Thursday night to advance to round two of the 2018 National Invitational Volleyball Championship.

The Golden Hurricane (19-12, 11-7) had control of set one from the start and never trailed, cruising to an easy victory and a 1-0 match lead. However, in true postseason fashion, the Mean Green (18-16, 11-3) battled back to win the next three sets, and ultimately the match.

"Tulsa came out pretty fired up," head coach Coach Andrew Palileo said. "They did everything right in that first set and we were a little behind step-wise. We talked about just focusing on one or two things at the start of the second set and our kids settled down a little bit."

Settling down was not on Freshman Rhett Robinson's mind though. The Krum native came out firing, recording five kills in the set, she would finish the match with 12 hitting at a .409 clip.

Robinson's night would be outshone by Valerie Valerian. The sophomore recorded her team leading 16th double-double of the season. She would finish with 18 kills and 13 assists.

"When you have five players in double-digits, it makes my job easier," senior setter Karley York said. York finished the night with 48 assists, taking her season mark to 1,267 and her career number to 3,750. York only needs 13 assists to move into fourth all-time in program history. The San Antonio native added 11 digs for a double-double of her own.

Sophomore Barbara Teakell added 9 kills and a team-leading 17 digs while junior Olivia Petnicki added 10 digs of her own after taking over the Libero role in set two.

North Texas will face Wichita State (14-17, 8-10) in round two. The Mean Green took down the Shockers in four sets last Saturday on the road to close out the regular season. The Shockers took down Central Arkansas 3-2 (20-25, 25-18, 25-13, 23-25, 15-11) in the early game on Thursday afternoon.

The second round NIVC matchup is set for 5:30 p.m. at the North Texas Volleyball Gym. All matches will be carried on cusa.tv streaming service. Follow along with @MeanGreenVB on all social channels for live updates.