North Texas Wins Defensive Battle

Saturday, October 7

Boca Raton, Fla.

7:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

North Texas

10/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Oct. 7, 2006

Final Stats

On Saturday evening at FAU Arena, a defensive battle between Florida Atlantic University and the University of North Texas took place. The two teams combined for 234 digs in a five-game volleyball match. UNT earned the win by taking the final two games of the match to defeat FAU 30-24, 19-30, 19-30, 30-25, 15-13.

After the Mean Green (12-10, 3-3 SBC) took the first game, the Owls (7-11, 4-4 SBC) looked in charge as they hit .357 in game two and forced UNT to commit 12 errors in game three. Six of those errors came off FAU blocks. Justine Petry (Trumansburg, NY) picked up four of her career-high 10 blocks in the game. She finished the contest with four solo blocks and six assists.

UNT regained the momentum in game four. With the score tied at 14, North Texas scored the next three points and never let the Owls get any closer than two points for the rest of the game.

Game five was a battle to the end with seven ties in the game to 15. The Owls jumped out to a 5-2 lead but saw the Mean Green tie the game at six. The match came down to the wire with the score tied at 13 before UNT's Erica Wendell and Tara Hooser posted kills for the final two points of the match. Hooser finished with a team-high 18 kills and .232 hitting percentage.

The defensive battle was led by Lauren Ditscheit, Iana Andonova and Kaila Janssen as they posted career highs with 23 digs each for FAU. UNT's Jessica Hulsebosch finished with a match-high 34 digs as the Mean Green libero. The defensive play forced both offenses to struggle as both teams posted hitting percentages under .100 for the match.

FAU will be on the road for the next two weeks. The Owls face a formidable task next weekend when they face Middle Tennessee State and Western Kentucky; two teams that advanced to the conference championship match a year ago.