Mobile, Ala. (10/5/01) - The North Texas volleyball team (7-9, 2-3) cruised to 3-0 road victory against South Alabama on Friday night, topping the Jaguars by scores of 30-22, 30-25 and 30-21.
The victory was the Mean Green’s second of the season over a Sun Belt Conference West Division foe and its first-ever road win in Sun Belt Conference play. North Texas won the first game for the seventh time this season and never let up, pounding out 46 kills and putting down six team blocks. UNT has now swept four opponents this season and it was its first ever sweep of a Sun Belt opponent.
"We had a very good team effort tonight," said North Texas head coach Cassie Headrick. "Rotation wise, we ended up being exactly where we wanted to be with Andrea in the back and she served extremely well. I thought we really got these going offensively towards the end of the match. They couldn’t touch Corina whether she was up front or in the back row. The entire team blocked well, we executed our game plan and this was a great win on the road."
The Mean Green posted a hitting percentage of .297 to the Jaguars .163. UNT recorded 11 service aces, including a team-high three by Corina Marginas (So.; OH; Brasov, Romania) and Andrea Hansel (Jr.; DS; Houghton, Michigan). Marginas led North Texas offensively with 18 kills and tallied her ninth double-double of the season with a team-high 11 digs as well. Tanya Samples (Jr.; MB; Nocona, Texas) played strong at the net, coming away with a match-high five blocks. Kristin Sheppard (So.; S; Texarkana, Texas) accounted for an assist on all but seven North Texas kills, recording 36 for the match.
North Texas will close out a four-match road stretch Saturday against New Orleans, which also competes in the West Division of the Sun Belt Conference. The match is scheduled to start at 3 PM.
