Box Score
DENTON (10/4/06) The North Texas volleyball team could not find the rhythm Wednesday night as it fell to Stephen F. Austin 3-0 (30-22, 30-23, 30-24).
The Mean Green (11-9, 2-2) only led twice the entire match as the Ladyjacks (15-3, 4-0) completed a sweep of the area after knocking off SMU on Tuesday.
“It was a pretty ugly game overall. We just could not pick it up and compete with them,” said Mean Green head coach Cassie Headrick. “It was a disappointing match.”
North Texas still has not registered a win against the Ladyjacks since 1995, now 0-5 in that span. That was the last year the Mean Green won a conference title, the Southland, when they beat SFA on their home court for the title and eventually knocked them out of the NCAA tournament later that same year.
The problems were evident as North Texas hurt themselves with 11 errors in the first game and trailed by as much as 10 points.
Brooke Engel tried to spark a rally with two aces in the second game finishing with five in the match to push her national leading total of 66 but could only bring the Mean Green to within four points, 24-20.
The third game looked to be a different story as the Mean Green showed a renewed enthusiasm and took the lead after three consecutive Engel aces at 12-11; however, the Ladyjacks showed resiliency and retook the lead at 18-19, never trailing again.
Brittney Gregory had a solid game with eight kills, and her 18 attacks on the evening made her only the second Mean Green player to ever have at least 3,000 attacks in her career.
Brooke Engel, Katy Prokof and Tara Hooser all had seven kills. Hooser’s total gives her 800 for her career.
North Texas will enter back into Sun Belt play when they play conference-leading Florida International on Friday. They will then face Florida Atlantic for the first time in school history on Saturday.
Following those matches the Mean Green will be at home for five consecutive matches, beginning with Louisiana-Lafayette October 13.
