UT Arlington VB Loses To Louisiana
{fshare id=5736}
ARLINGTON, Texas – UT Arlington struggled to get things going offensively in its three-set loss to Louisiana on Friday night as the Mavericks hit just .130 on the night compared to .275 for the Ragin’ Cajuns.
“To me it looked like they just wanted it a lot more than us,” UT Arlington coach Diane Seymour said. “They just killed us in every category. We were out blocked ten to two which is unheard of against us and they out dug us by ten so I guess they just wanted it a lot more than us.”
The loss drops the Mavericks to 22-8 this season with a 12-5 mark in the Sun Belt while Louisiana improves to 19-11 on the year with an 8-10 record in conference play.
Briana Sharratt and Stacey Koch shouldered the offensive load for the Mavericks as the duo combined to record 21 of UTA’s 37 kills. Sharratt registered a team high 11 kills and a hitting percentage of .320 while Koch ended the night with ten kills.
“They definitely came out and fought harder than we did in general,” Koch said. “We scouted them beforehand and we knew where they would play in defense so we worked on hitting the ball around them and I just focused on doing that.”
Caitlyn Cooney led the Mavericks defensively as the junior libero notched 17 digs in the match.
“We’ve played some really bad volleyball for about two and a half weeks and are 2-3 in that stretch,” Seymour added. “Something has got to flip in our players that they want to restart this season and try to finish on a strong note where they can have five or six more matches. Otherwise we are down to three matches and it’s over.”
UT Arlington will return to action this Sunday when they take on Georgia State in its home finale which will be broadcast for free on UTAMavs.com. The Mavericks will honor their four seniors prior to the noon match.
