University of North Texas
7-10,4-2AAC
UTSA
6-13,0-6AAC
Volleyball Defeats UTSA, Sweeps Season Series
10/13/2024 4:59:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
DENTON, Texas – Mean Green volleyball dominated American Athletic Conference rivals UTSA 3-1 at the UNT Volleyball Center on Sunday to collect a season sweep of the Roadrunners.
After trailing 4-3 early in the second set, UNT did not concede a lead for the remainder of the match.
The Mean Green (7-10, 4-2) recorded its fifth match of the season with a hitting percentage mark over .300, including four of the past five contests, against the Roadrunners (6-13, 0-6) on Sunday. The four-set win (23-25, 25-12, 25-12, 25-13) marks the second time this year that the Mean Green have dropped the first set and still won the match, both against UTSA.
Junior Payton Van Veen led UNT with a season-high 18 kills on 27 attacks with zero errors for a .667 hitting clip. The performance marks her fourth collegiate match in which she has collected a hitting percentage above 60% with ten or more attacks and her first at the Division I level.
In her second appearance of her UNT career, redshirt sophomore Loredana Fouonji broke out with personal-best marks of five kills on nine attacks with zero errors for a .556 hitting percentage and four blocks. Fouonji had not scored in a collegiate match since she posted four kills and three blocks on Nov. 12, 2022, when she played at Division II Saint Martin's University.
Setter Kamryn Scroggins distributed 33 assists to mark her second match with 30-plus this season and added nine digs, two kills and one ace.
In the first set, the Mean Green trailed by seven points, 21-14, late in the frame before extending a 9-3 run that drew a pair of UTSA timeouts, the second of which with a narrow 24-23 lead. The Roadrunners regrouped after the second break and collected the set-winning kill.
With momentum on its side, UNT controlled the second set including a nine-point run that was highlighted by four service aces from freshman Ryann Vik. The Mean Green set a new season-high mark of 10 service aces with personal-best outings from Vik (four aces) and fellow freshman Julia Tennoey (two aces) in her first career start.
Van Veen and Fouonji controlled the third set as the front-line duo scored a combined 10 points including seven kills on nine attacks and three total blocks. Both sets two and three finished 25-12 in favor of the Mean Green, the 13-point spreads each tied for the fourth-largest margin of victory in a single set this season.
The Mean Green utilized a 13-3 run midway through the fourth set to close out the match comfortably.
UP NEXT
UNT hosts Tulsa on Friday at 6 p.m. before Memphis visits on Sunday at 11 a.m. for Senior Day. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+ from the UNT Volleyball Center. Fans can purchase tickets HERE.
