Volleyball Prepares For Final Home Stand

DENTON - Riding five-match and 10-set win streaks, the North Texas volleyball team returns home to finish the regular season before the Conference USA Tournament begins next week. The Mean Green will host UTEP on Thursday night which is also senior night, then face Southern Mississippi on Saturday.

To say that North Texas (13-15, 9-3 C-USA) is hot as of late is an understatement. The Mean Green have won five straight matches while capturing 15 of their last 17 sets, a stretch that includes sweeps of Western Kentucky, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, and Southern Miss. But head coach Andrew Palileo says his team must continue to clean things up as the tournament approaches.

"We talk about efficiency versus effectiveness, and I think we've been doing both more consistently," Palileo said after the sweep of Middle Tennessee. "It says we are heading in the right direction."

He echoed similar sentiments after the sweep of Southern Miss.

"We need to keep focusing on what we are doing well," Palileo said Sunday. "We have to maintain it and clean up some things we were loose on."

The Mean Green will open the home stand against UTEP (5-19, 2-10 C-USA) Thursday night. North Texas has been dominant in the all-time series against the Miners, winning all eight previous contests, seven since the two became conference foes in 2013. Prior to the match, North Texas will honor seniors Karley York and Jordyn Williams.

Sophomore Barbara Teakell found success against the Miners during her freshman campaign. The Celina native posted 14 kills in last years' match, which was her highest kill total in a match since September 8, 2017. Teakell goes into this week's matches hitting at a .331 clip over the last five matches.

The Mean Green and the Miners are set for a 6 p.m. start Thursday at the North Texas Volleyball Center.

Sunday, the Mean Green will face Southern Miss for the second time in a six-day span.
York, a setter from San Antonio, has been key to the Mean Green's success over the past two seasons, accounting for 3,485 assists in her career with 2,443 of them coming inthe last two seasons. York ranks fourth all-time in career assists at UNT.

Williams, also from San Antonio, has been a force on offense and defense, recording 78 blocks this year, including 11 combined against WKU and UAB on 10/19 and 10/21, respectively, to earn Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Both are motivated to get to the NCAA tournament in their final season after coming so close last season.

"That is our main goal," Williams said. "Everyone on the team is very bought into what we want to accomplish this season. At this point we are working on refining the little things in practice. I do see a lot of similarities to last year's team, but there are differences. The energy is the same."

The Golden Eagles (15-13, 6-6 C-USA) come into Sunday's match winning four of their last five, the one loss being to North Texas last Sunday. The Mean Green sit in a three-way tie for third in the C-USA standings with Florida Atlantic and Western Kentucky.

Sunday's match is set for 1 p.m. from the North Texas Volleyball Center.

Both matches will be streamed on C-USA TV, live stat feeds will be available on meagreenstats.com, and @MeanGreenVB will carry live updates on all social media.

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Barbara Martin

Jordyn Williams

Karley York

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