ARLINGTON, Tx. - West Georgia volleyball opened conference play falling 3-2 to UT Arlington tonight on the road in the program's first-ever UAC match.
After taking a set one win over UTA (7-7, 1-1 UAC), the Wolves (4-9, 0-1 UAC) found themselves with their backs against the ropes down two sets to one after the hosts claimed consecutive wins. Leaning on a match-high .286 team hitting percentage, UWG clawed their way to a tight 26-24 set four win before being bested in the fifth.
UWG was led by Brooke McCall with 19.5 points from 19 kills. Milena Ćetković led the Wolves and tied her career-high with six blocks.
SET ONE
UWG opened up conference play jumping out to a 6-3 lead fueled from Maverick errors and a block from
Valiree Schmus and
Maddy Kirmer. UTA would quickly recover and take a tight lead by answering with four kills in a row. With neither team attacking the ball cleanly, the match stayed knotted up through the first 15 points. The set one stalemate continued until the very last score. With UTA leading 23-22, the Wolves would propel themselves to a 25-23 set one win after tallying three straight points from a pair of kills by Kirmer and Schmus, and a block by Kirmer and
Grace-Blythe Cornett. This set featured 11 ties and four lead changes.
SET TWO
Highlighted by seven ties on the race to the double-digit mark, set two continued to stay as competitive as the first. Locked at 11-11, UTA strung together a 4-2 run to build a tight 15-13 lead, but the Wolves were right on their heels. Coming out of the media break, UWG stormed back to take a 17-16 lead. Unfortunately, UTA quickly recovered before going on to take a 25-22 set victory.
SET THREE
The third set of tonight's Texas matchup saw UWG build an early 7-4 advantage thanks to a pair of kills from Kirmer, a Cassie Thayse ace, a block by Schmus, and two UTA errors. The hosts would bounce back and take a lead by capitalizing from costly UWG attack errors. The Wolves found themselves down 16-13 following a 8-1 scoring swing in the Mavericks' favor. UWG battled to the end, but faell short, 25-20.
SET FOUR
With momentum on UTA's side, up 2-1 in sets, the Mavericks kicked off the fourth frame building a commanding 8-2 lead, but the Pack continued to fight. Taking it one volley at a time, UWG slowly chipped away at the deficit by leaning on a match-high .286 team hitting percentage. By the time the teams were just getting out of the media break, UWG had flipped the script and locked the match at 16-16 on an ace by Giorgia Mandotti. The fourth set wrapped up the two UAC squads trading blows before consecutive McCall kills and a Mavericks' error pushed the Wolves to a 26-24 win.
SET FIVE
Playing in the fifth set for the first time since the home Mercer match (Sept. 12), West Georgia's opening UAC contest stayed gridlocked. Highlighted by scoring swings early on from both teams, UWG found themselves down 8-4 following a 4-0 UTA run. The Pack would go on to fall 15-11 after running out of gas midway through the set.
The Wolves return home to host Abilene Christian on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Pack's first home UAC match in program history.
