Box Score RICHARDSON, TX (09.18.09) – The UT Dallas volleyball team drew first blood in the battle for supremacy in the American Southwest Conference East Division Friday night, putting together a dominating performance in a 25-12, 25-16, 25-16 win over longtime rival East Texas Baptist University.
The undefeated Comets, ranked No. 16 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association national Top 25 poll, put down 44 kills in the three-game sweep of the Lady Tigers to improve to 7-0 overall and 3-0 in the ASC East Division race. East Texas Baptist saw its record even out at 5-5, 1-1 in the ASC.
UTD and East Texas Baptist have shared two of the last three East Division championships. Although UTD won the title outright in 2007, it was only able to split the season series with the Lady Tigers - something it has done each of the last two years. UTD took two of the three meetings last season after also defeating ETBU in the ASC Championship Game.
Friday night, the Comets didn't look like a team that wanted to share anything as they rolled both offensively and defensively. The Comets tallied 16 kills in each of their first two games, connecting at a .290 pace. ETBU, which only scored 44 points all night long, got just 27 of those on the offensive side of the ball, relying on Comet serving and attack errors for everything else. The Lady Tigers hit just .036 for the match with 27 kills and 23 errors.
Jessica Nassau led the way for UTD with 14 kills while
Kyleigh Irish hammered home 12 and finished with a double-double by adding 15 digs. The UTD defense was equally as impressive with Irish,
Amber Wetz and
Melanie Power combining for 38 digs.
In the first game, UTD (a 25-12 winner) gave an early preview of how dominating the match would become. The Comets jumped out to a 6-0 lead and never let the Lady Tigers get any closer than 10-5 the rest of the way. Nassau and Irish each had five kills in the first game.
Nassau added six more in the Game 2 win as UTD never trailed. After the score was tied at 3-3, the Comets went on an 11-3 run to open up a 14-6 lead and never let the ETBU get any closer than six on the way to a 25-16 win.
The final game was the closest of the three with ETBU overcoming an early UTD lead to tie the score at 10-10. But UTD scored 15 of the next 31 points and walked away with a 25-16 victory and a victory in their first showdown with ETBU this year. The two teams meet again Oct. 23 in Marshall.
The East Division champion also earns the right to host the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament Nov. 6-7. UTD's next game is the last of a four-game home stretch with the University of Dallas coming in for a non-conference matchup Tuesday night before a road trip to division rivals UT-Tyler and LeTourneau next weekend.
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