DENTON, Texas - The ULM volleyball team battled back from a
two-set deficit on the backs of career-best performances by Samantha Morse and
Zuzana Markova but fell flat in the fifth set to fall 3-2 (15-25, 20-25, 25-21,
32-30, 9-15) to Sun Belt Conference foe North Texas Friday evening in the Mean
Green Volleyball Center. It marked ULM's fourth-consecutive five-set match and
now sits 5-3 overall in five-set thrillers this season.
Markova notched her 10th triple-double of the
season after career-bests in assists and digs with 32 and 17, respectively, in
addition to 11 kills and three blocks. The junior's triple-double was the
first-ever seen in the history of the Mean Green Volleyball Center. Morse led
ULM with 20 kills to snap her career-high by one which she set in the Warhawks'
first match of the season against McNeese State.
Blanca Ocana registered double-digits in kills as well with
13. Marcela Urbina was one dig shy of Markova with 16 while Lacey Dietlin and
Tetiana Sukach each had 11. Meghan McCoy collected 17 assists for the evening
and Mahogany Dilonga stuffed a match-high seven blocks.
After dropping the first two sets, the Warhawks (9-8, 3-4
SBC) rallied back in the third game in which they only trailed once by just a
point before forcing seven ties until the 19-19 mark. A kill by Morse and
three-straight Mean Green (12-12, 3-5 SBC) attack errors gave ULM a 23-19
advantage and North Texas managed just two more kills by Eboni Godfrey before a
kill by Dilonga ended the set 25-21.
The score stayed tight in the fourth set until North Texas
used a 6-2 run to jump out to a 12-8 lead. ULM slowly fought back with a 9-5
spree to knot the score 17-17 and incite a back-and-forth battle which involved
four ties and three lead changes. The Warhawks held off the Mean Green at
set-point 24-22 by forcing an attack error and took the hard-fought fourth set
with an Ocana kill and another North Texas error 32-30.
North Texas doubled its lead in the fifth set 6-3 with a
kill by Melanie Boykins before ULM responded with a 5-3 run to come within one
point 9-8. The Warhawks would only have one more kill from Morse, however, as
the Mean Green took a four-point spree to end the deciding set with a 15-9 win.
The Warhawks had a slow start to the match, falling back
13-9 in the first set before North Texas used four-consecutive points during a
7-1 run to double its advantage 20-10. Each team scored five more points to end
the set 25-15.
ULM commanded the entire second set until the 18-14 mark
when North Texas mounted eight-consecutive points to grab a 22-18 advantage. A
kill by Markova and a Mean Green attack error kept the Warhawks alive before a
final kill by Morton awarded them the set 25-20.
North Texas' Morton collected a match-high 23 kills and Godfrey
notched 18 for the evening while both players had 10 and 13 digs, respectively,
to earn double-doubles. Kayla Saey also had a double-double with a match-best
66 assists and 16 digs while Hallie McDonald and Boykins contributed 13 and 12
kills each. Sarah Willey had a team-best 17 digs.
ULM ends its two-match Sun Belt Conference road trip when it
faces Denver on Sunday at 1 p.m.
