ABILENE – North Texas volleyball picked up its first sweep of 2019 defeating Cal State Fullerton (25-15, 25-17, 25-18). The Mean Green (3-4) were led by a strong defensive performance. Aleeyah Galdeira and Barbara Teakell both provided 20 digs. Teakell tied her season high for digs set against San Jose State.
 
North Texas snapped a three-game losing streak. Head coach Andrew Palileo now has 399 career wins and will search for number 400 tomorrow.

"It feels good," Palileo said. "We really went after it. I think our defense and serving was really two key factors today. We wanted to really be confident in what we are doing and we executed."
 
North Texas led for a majority of the match, dominating in hitting percentage in each set. In set one North Texas out hit Cal State Fullerton (5-2) 86 to 52 percent before outhitting the Titans 61 to 41 percent in set two. In set three North Texas out hit the Titans 55 to 40 percent.
 
The Mean Green jumped out to an early lead in set two thanks to 12 straight points with Kaliegh Skopal behind the serving line. Before the run ended North Texas took a 13-2 lead it would not relinquish despite two timeouts from the Titans hoping to throw the Mean Green off.
 
Instead, it was the Mean Green accomplishing throwing off its opponent.
 
"The biggest thing is serving is just getting the other team out of their system," Skopal said. "That's the goal for every server. We want to put balls away. I thought our outsides did awesome."
 
Set three was the first time the Titans took a lead before North Texas came back to take a 14-13 lead. The Mean Green then rattled off another run of 9-1 to open a lead it would not relinquish to finish off the match.
 
Skopal finished with 39 assists. Sarah Haeussler and Valerie Valerian were the two Mean Green in double-digit kills with 10 and 15 respectively. Teakell had eight kills, Miranda Youmans provided five and Alysha Johnson got four kills of her own.
 
Haeussler led the team with three blocks.

"I think we grew a bit today," Haeussler said. "We played a big part together in what we did both defensively and offensively. I think having this win leads us into tomorrow with momentum."
 
The Mean Green continue the Wildcat Classic with a doubleheader on Saturday. North Texas faces hosts Abilene Christian at 2 p.m. before facing off with Prairie View A&M immediately after.