RICHARDSON, TX (10.25.14) - The UT Dallas volleyball team closed out the home portion of its schedule with flare Saturday morning, trouncing Concordia Texas, 25-18, 25-16, 25-7, in American Southwest Conference play as the Comets celebrated Senior Day.
The Comets improved to 17-8 overall and 11-4 in ASC play as they extended their winning streak to six matches, all sweeps, after suffering a four-match, mid-season losing streak that included a loss at Concordia. UTD, currently tied for third in the league standings, will close out ASC play Tuesday night at LeTourneau. Match time is 7 p.m. in Longview.
UTD hit .302 as a team in their home finale, and thoroughly dominated the Tornados from start to finish as the Comets continued to peak at the right time of the year. Senior
Taylour Toso, the Comets' all-time kills leader, finished with a match-high 14 kills in the final home match of her career as she wrapped up a stellar week. Toso hit .542 for the match, adding five blocks and an ace in the lop-sided victory.
Meredith Crawford ended with nine kills while
Holyn Handley had six kills. Setter
Kayla Jordan closed out the three-set match with 28 assists while sophomore
Bethany Werner led the defense with 14 digs.
The Comets jumped out to an early lead in the opening set, using a 7-0 run on the service of Toso to grab a quick 10-3 advantage. UTD held the large lead for the majority of the set, except a short 5-0 run by the Tornados to draw within two points, 15-13. UTD answered with a three-point run of its own to grab a 18-13 lead and never looked back. Toso and Crawford each had three kills in a balanced first-set attack as the Comets collected four blocks in the game.
UTD improved offensively in the second set, hitting .441 as a team with 17 kills to just just two errors. Toso led the charge with four kills as six different Comets had at least two kills in the set. The Comets could not rely on a long run in the second, instead grabbing points in chunks. After a quick 5-0 early run in the set to snag a 7-4 advantage, UTD had to hold off several mini-runs by the Tornados en route to the 25-16 win.
The third and final set was complete domination by the Comets, hitting .370 as a team. CTX failed to record back-to-back points once in the set as UTD raced out to a 14-1 start and cruised to the win. Toso was nearly perfect in the set, collecting seven kills without an error in nine swings while adding three blocks as UTD cruised to a 25-7 win, the Comets' largest margin of victory in any set this season.
