Volleyball defeats Marshall, remember senior’s mother

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Kyle Youmans / Staff Writer

The Mean Green volleyball team won its second straight game after a victory in a five-set battle with Marshall University on Sunday afternoon (25-20, 21-25, 25-20, 16-25, 15-8).

North Texas (12-6, 3-2) came into the game with heavy hearts and wearing purple in memory of senior setter and team captain Camille Cherry’s mother, Tina Reese. Reese passed away in a car accident Friday night on the way to the Mean Green’s game against Louisiana Tech University.

“Coming in we knew what we needed to do,” junior outside hitter Carnae Dillard said. “We knew our job and we knew why we were playing today. We were able to come out here and do what we needed to do. There were no excuses because we all knew that we were playing for Ms. Tina [Reese] and we all knew she would have loved to be here.”

The Mean Green started the game off quickly as they took a 6-5 early lead in the first set, and never looked back as they took that first set 25-20. The team hit a rough spot in the middle of the second set when Marshall shifted the momentum, and took the set by scoring five of the final seven points.

The Mean Green was able to rebound in the third set and held an early lead the entire way through. North Texas came into the match last in Conference USA in blocks, but thanks to the play of freshman middle blocker Amanda Chamberlain, the team was able to record a new season high 12 total blocks.

“When I go into the game, all my teammates tell me that this is my net and I need to control it,” Chamberlain said. “We really took that into effect tonight as we were able to go out there and play well, it was all in my mindset.”

Marshall was able to take quick control of the fourth set, jumping out to an early 13-4 lead and was able to hold off a Mean Green comeback, eventually taking the set 16-25.

In the fifth and final set the Mean Green took an early 10-6 lead and were able to ride the momentum to a 15-8 victory in order to secure the conference win.

“Sometimes it just happens,” head coach Andrew Palileo said. “The players started to get on a streak, Amanda had a couple huge blocks and Carnae was able to maintain a nice service run. Those two players alone really made a difference in the fifth set.”

With the win North Texas will hit the road this week to face Southern Mississippi University on Friday at 7 p.m.

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