University of North Texas
-118,42 CUSA
Southern Miss
-1010,24 CUSA
Mean Green defeat Southern Miss in four sets
10/9/2021 2:41:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
DENTON — Sarah Haeussler posted a game high 16 kills along with a .481 attack percentage as North Texas defeated Southern Miss in four sets (20-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-19) on Saturday afternoon.
The Mean Green (11-8, 4-2) had four players finish the match with at least five kills. Rhett Robinson had a 15 kill performance, while Truli Levy added nine and Kaliegh Skopal had five. Levy also had a .467 attack percentage, the second highest on the team behind Haeussler.
The match didn't start well for North Texas, who found themselves trailing for most of the first set to Southern Miss (10-10, 2-4) en route to dropping the frame.
"Southern Miss came ready to play," said head coach Andrew Palileo. "The first touch was the difference in that first set, as well as almost all of the second. We cleaned it up just enough to give ourselves a chance to win that second set."
That cleaned up second frame proved to be enough for the win. Despite falling down 4-0 to start the set, North Texas battled back thanks to a 5-0 run midway through. They closed the set on a 3-0 run to claim the win.
The Mean Green controlled most of the third set, using separate 5-0 and 4-0 runs to help create some space between themselves and the Golden Eagles. North Texas closed out the frame thanks to kills from Truli Levy and Avery McCrillis.
The fourth set started off fairly even and was tied at 13-13, but the Mean Green used an 8-0 run to put Southern Miss behind them, winning the set 25-19.
"I think we passed pretty well today and our defense was a little bit better," said Haeussler. "I think we can work on our blocking side of things, but other than that, we put in good work defensively."
North Texas now turns their attention to UAB next week in their second conference road trip of the season. The Mean Green face the Blazers at 6 p.m. on October 15 and at 1 p.m. on October 16. Follow @MeanGreenVB on Twitter and Instagram and like the team on Facebook for updates throughout the season.
