DENTON - The North Texas volleyball season will live to see another week. The Mean Green used a record setting night from senior Karley York to advance past Wichita State in four sets (25-19, 24-26, 25-14, 25-21) and move onto round three of the 2018 Women's National Invitational Volleyball Championship.
"I thought we played a pretty clean game," head coach Andrew Palileo said. "We started out with a little bit better level of energy. Congratulations to Wichita State. They have played a very tough schedule and their RPI proves it. I'm excited that we got to beat a good team back-to-back weekends. I'm excited for our program and excited to get this win at home."
The Mean Green (19-16, 11-3) took set one while hitting at a .760 clip, the 20 team kills would be outshone by a kill by freshman Rhett Robinson. Robinson's kill was the one that helped teammate Karley York rewrite the North Texas Volleyball record book. York's assist on that play gave her 3,763 assists for her career and sole possession of fourth place all-time in program history.
The senior from San Antonio would finish the match with a season-best 59 assists, one off from her career best set last season when she recorded 60 against Florida Atlantic.
Set two was a back and forth affair that saw neither team gaining a significant lead over their opponent. Some attack errors and finally a kill by Wichita State (14-18, 8-10) would give the shockers a 26-24 set win and tie the match up at one set a piece.
The Mean Green would come out strong in set three however, North Texas would jump out to a 7-2 lead forcing Wichita State to take a timeout. Freshman Sarah Haeussler recorded four big blocks in the set. She would finish the match with six, along with a season-best 11 kills.
North Texas cruised to a 25-14 win in the set, setting up a chance to advance in the tournament with a set four win.
"I was very happy with the offense and the numbers reflect it," Valerian said. "When we're putting balls down that builds momentum for us. Considering our pre-season and conference, coming in and being able to win it shows we've worked hard and accomplished a lot."
With advancement on the line, the Mean Green's best hitters would come to play. Five of North Texas' hitters finished the match with double digit kills. Freshman Rhett Robinson recorded 10, Haeussler had her 11, senior Jordyn Williams tallied 14, sophomore Barbara Teakell tallied 15 along with 10 digs for a double-double, and sophomore Valerie Valerian recorded 18 kills for her 27th double-digit kill number of the season.
York would also tally 10 digs for a double-double of her own. North Texas now awaits a date with Iowa State in the third round on Wednesday in Ames, Iowa.