RICHARDSON, TX (11.05.15) - After receiving a first round bye, the No. 15-ranked UT Dallas volleyball team kicked off its hopeful conference title run with a quick 3-0 win over Concordia Texas Thursday night at the 2015 American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament. This year's event is held at UTD Activity Center.
The Comets (28-2) rolled off win number 21 in a row after easily handling CTX, 25-6, 25-2, 25-19. UTD will face ASC West champion Mary Hardin-Baylor at 5 p.m. Friday for a berth into the tournament's title match at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Junior
Michelle Toro collected 15 kills, hitting a school-record .700, while adding five blocks and a pair of digs in the quick win. Junior
Holyn Handley added 11 kills, hitting .524, while freshman
Kristyn Schott had six kills and junior
Abbie Barth finished with five kills. The Comets hit a season-best .416 as a team, committing just six total errors in the three-set victory.
UTD stormed out of the gate in the first set, drilling the Tornados, 25-6, while collecting 15 kills with just one error for a .500 hitting percentage. Toro got things started with six kills, on seven swings, in the set. The Comets stepped things up in the second set as they used a 12-0 start to pick up their biggest set win of the season, 25-2. The Comets hit .619 as a team in the second stanza, with 13 kills without an error, as Schott drove the offense with five kills.
The Tornados (now 12-12) settled down in the third set and even led UTD, 10-8, before a final surge by the Comets. Toro had seven kills in the third set as UTD cooled off with a .250 hitting percentage as team in the final gme.
Senior setter
Kayla Jordan, the NCAA D-III leader in assists per set, finished the match with 36 assists, 12.0 per set, while Barth led UTD with 16 digs. The Comets finished with 10 total blocks, with Jordan matching Toro's team lead with five rejections.
In earlier action at the ASC Tournament, Hardin-Simmons opened the event with a 3-0 win over East Texas Baptist. CTX then edged Texas-Tyler, 3-2. UMHB picked up a short 3-0 win over HSU to set up Friday's winner's bracket contest. UTT and HSU will open play Friday at 12 p.m. with an elimination match before CTX faces ETBU at 2:30 p.m., also an elimination match.
