BELTON, TX (11.02.18) - The UT Dallas volleyball team's quest for a fourth straight American Southwest Conference got a little tougher Friday night after a 3-1 loss to No. 23-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor in the event's winner's bracket.
The Comets (22-9) will next play at 11 a.m. Saturday in an elimination match against Concordia Texas, a team in which UTD claimed a 3-0 win over to open the tournament Friday morning. UTD will need to earn three wins on Saturday to become just the second ASC volleyball team to win four consecutive league crowns. With a win over CTX, the Comets would then face UMHBÂ at 2 p.m. in the first of two potential ASC title matches.
Alyssa Porter led four Comets in double figures with 17 kills while
Alex Nolan added 13 kills and both
Jillian Via and
Lauren Schilling contributed 10 kills. UTD hit just .187 for the match as the Comets fell to the Cru, 24-26, 25-19, 23-25, 21-25. UMHBÂ finished the contest hitting .203 with Corinne Novak collecting a match-high 18 kills to lead four Cru players in double digits.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Porter had five kills as the Comets' dropped the opening set to UMHB, 26-24. UTD rallied late to take a 24-23 lead over the Cru after Dylan Brinkman kill, but UMHB answered with three straight points to take a 1-0 lead. UTD hit .211 as a team in the set with three blocks.
- The Comets evened the match, 1-1, with a 25-19 win in the second set. Porter had seven kills and a .400 hitting percentage as UTD grabbed an early lead and never looked back. The Comets hit .246 as a team, their best set of the match.
- The Cru responded with a 25-23 win in the third set to take a 2-1 advantage, erasing a late deficit again to take the set. Down 23-21, UMHBÂ rolled off four straight points to regain control of the match. Brinkman led the Comets in the set, collecting four of her seven kills on the night in the stanza.
- The matched ended with a 25-21 UMHB victory. The Cru scored the first five points of the set and held off every UTD rally attempt to advance to Saturday's title match.
