Volleyball Falls To UTSA Sunday

Sunday, September 23

San Antonio, TX

1:00 PM

University of North Texas

-512, 11 CUSA

UTSA

-104, 20 CUSA

North Texas

UTSA

9/23/2018 3:45:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Season Statistics Season Statistics (C USA)

SAN ANTONIO - The North Texas volleyball team finished out the opening weekend of Conference USA play with a 3-0 (25-22, 27-25, 25-21) loss to UTSA on Sunday afternoon at the Convocation Center.

"We played well to a certain point, but when we need to close sets out, we're not doing it," head coach Andrew Palileo said. "We've got to execute better."

Sophomore Valerie Valerian recorded her fourth-straight double-double with team highs in kills (14) and digs (14). Through the first two matches of conference play, she is averaging 5.38 kills per set and four digs per set.

For the second-straight match, freshman Kasey Bortnem tied Valerian for the team lead in digs with 14. Senior Jordyn Williams led the squad with four blocks to go with seven kills, and fellow senior Karley York posted her third-straight double-double with 34 assists and 13 digs.

In an opening frame that was virtually even on the scoresheet, serving provided the difference-maker in the first set as three North Texas (5-12, 1-1 C-USA) service errors and a pair of UTSA (10-4, 2-0 C-USA) aces provided the Roadrunners with the necessary gap to take the opening frame. UTSA led by as many as six before a 6-2 run for the Mean Green trimmed the deficit to two, but the Roadrunners halted the comeback efforts.

"Our offense is just as good as anyone's in our league, but our defense and big-moment play is not where we need it," Palileo said.

UNT took that competitiveness into the second set, which saw 12 tie scores and four lead changes before UTSA eventually came out on top. Facing set point, the Mean Green were gifted with a pair of Roadrunner mishaps that gave North Texas the lead, but UTSA closed with three straight points to go up 2-0 in the match.

Freshman Rhett Robinson, who joined Valerian in double-digits with 13 kills, tallied three of her points early in the third set to help the Mean Green to a 12-10 lead. The Roadrunners responded with five straight points to force a UNT timeout, and UTSA extended the run to 8-1, giving the Roadrunners an 18-13 advantage. Despite two more kills from Robinson, UTSA closed out the set to seal the win.

"We talked about matching UTSA's intensity," Palileo said. "They're a good defensive team. They make your hitters take a couple more swings than they're used to. We did that for most of the match, but the big moments are where we lost some of those points."

UP NEXT
North Texas remains on the road to face Tulsa at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Reynolds Center.

QUICK HITTERS
- With her second kill of the match, Valerie Valerian reached 500 in her career.
- The Mean Green fall to 0-5 at the Convocation Center under Palileo.
- In the last three meetings with UTSA, Karley York is averaging 12.45 assists per set.