MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (11/17/05) -- The North Texas volleyball team suffered a 30-26, 30-22, 30-17 setback to Arkansas-Little Rock in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Thursday as its season came to a close.
The Mean Green entered the tournament on a five-match winning streak and as the No. 5 seed, while UALR was the No. 4 seed. North Texas completes the season with a 14-18 record and with seven more victories than it had for all of last year. The Trojans improved to 18-11 and advance to face No.1 Western Kentucky in tomorrow’s semifinals.
The Mean Green was unable to hit over .091 in any of the three games, while UALR got stronger in each one to finish with a .302 overall attack percentage. The Mean Green had its best offensive showing in the final game with a team-high 13 kills, but UALR posted a .406 attack percentage in the same game to finish strong.
North Texas finished the match with 32 kills on a season-low .039 attack percentage. NT’s .039 hitting percentage was due in part to a solid defensive effort by the Trojans, who finished with 12 blocks and 59 digs.
While the Mean Green was unable to come away with the win, sophomore Ashley Bass still reached a milestone in the match as she recorded her 1,000th career assist. Bass recorded 27 assists in the match to give her 1,022 for her career and make her one of just eight players in school history to achieve the feat.
Freshman middle blocker Catherine Coffey and sophomore middle blocker Erica Wendell posted a team-high eight kills each, while junior Heidi Johnson paced the Mean Green defensively with a team-high 11 digs.
UALR was led by Amila Baracovic with a match-high 18 kills on a .417 attack percentage.
The Mean Green ended the season with 1,526 kills for the fifth most in school history. The Mean Green also finished the year with top-10 numbers at North Texas for a single season in attack percentage, assists, digs, block assists, block solos and total blocks.
