No. 1 UALR Dominates No. 4 UT Arlington As They Move On To Finals
SAN MARCOS, Texas- No. 1 UALR Advanced to the finals of the Sun Belt Championship with a convincing 3-0 (25-6, 25-17, 25-15) semifinal victory over No. 4 UT Arlington on Friday afternoon at Strahan Coliseum. The Trojans tied a Sun Belt Tournament Record for largest margin of victory in a set when they won the first set 25-6. This is the first time that the Trojans have advanced to the finals since 2000.
UALR started off the match scoring eight of the first nine points and cruised to a 25-6 victory in the first set. The score tied a school record for the second best set in school history. The Trojans tied a mark which this year’s team set on September 17 when they defeated UL Monroe 25-6 in the third set. The Trojans also tied a Sun Belt Championship record with FIU which won the first set, 25-6 over Denver in a first round match during the 2010 championship. Edina Selimovic accrued four kills, two digs, and three bock assists including the final kill of the frame which she dropped over the UT Arlington block. UALR hit .455 for the set while holding UT Arlington to a -.333 hitting percentage.
UALR followed by claiming the second set 25-17 as Edina Begic claimed seven kills in the frame while Sonja Milanovic notched five of her own. The set started with three straight points including another ace by Selimovic. However, Taylor Gross broke that run with a kill on a pass from Amanda Welsh. Begic and UT Arlington’s Qiana Canete traded kills over the next four points. Milanovic notched two straight kills to extend the lead to 7-3, and the Mavericks were unable to get the game closer than four the rest of the set. UALR claimed their biggest lead of the set at 24-14. UT Arlington scored three straight points before Begic ended the set by slamming a kill off the UT Arlington block.
UT Arlington took a 1-0 lead to start the third set as Begic committed an error while trying to set the ball, but the Mavericks only lead of the game was short lived as Megan Mathis recorded a kill by dropping the ball into the middle of the UT Arlington defense on the next play. That was the start of a 5-0 Trojan run which allowed them to take control of the third set. The game went back and forth, but UT Arlington was unable to get within four points the rest of the set as UALR won 25-15.
Begic and Milanovic each finished with a double-double. Begic had 12 kills, 11 digs, and two aces while Milanovic recorded 13 kills and 11 digs. Selimovic finished with seven kills, three aces, four digs, and five block assists. Mathis recorded 35 assists while Capri Rino led the team with 15 digs. UALR hit .361 for the match.
Briana Sharratt and Canete tied for the Maverick lead in kills as both had six. Caitlyn Cooney tallied 11 digs while Welsh notched 10 assists.
UALR will advance to the Sun Belt Championship game where they will play the winner of No. 2 Texas State and No. 3 Arkansas State contest played at 6:30 p.m. CT on Friday evening. The championship match will be at 1 p.m. on Sunday, November 29th at Strahan Coliseum. The game will be streamed live on ESPN3.