Volleyball Drops Five-Setter to North Texas

Sunday, November 3

Boca Raton, Fla.

12 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

-138, 73 CUSA

North Texas

-158, 92 CUSA

UNT

FAU

2019 FAU Volleyball vs Texas - San Antonio

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

11/3/2019 4:59:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. - In a match that lived up to the billing, the Florida Atlantic University volleyball team fell to North Texas in five sets (11-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-9) on Sunday. The Owls are now 13-8 overall and 7-3 in Conference USA.

Key Plays
The Owls stormed out to a 17-2 lead in the first set as Sydney Nemtuda, Cailea Gibbs and Stephanie Young all had extended serving runs. The Mean Green (15-8, 9-2) enjoyed a long serving run of its own, but couldn't get the margin to single digits. A Sigourney Kame kill ended the frame.

After falling behind early in set number two, three straight Nikki Lakman service aces tied things up at 13. North Texas regained the lead, but a Zuri Smith and Massiel Matos tandem block narrowed the edge to a point, 18-17. The Mean Green closed on a 7-1 run to tie the match at a set apiece.

The third set was back-and-forth most of the way, featuring 14 ties and eight lead changes. However, North Texas led 19-15 and seemed poised to take a two sets to one lead. A Kennedy Muckelroy kill kickstarted a rally that included kills by six different FAU players and catapulted the Owls to a 25-21 come-from-behind victory.

The Owls trailed 24-18 in the fourth set and were able fight off four Mean Green set points before North Texas took the frame to force a fifth set.

North Texas led the decisive set 6-2 when Jordan Yauch was able to serve the Owls back to within a point. FAU couldn't get any closer and the Mean Green took the set and the match 15-9.

Notables

Massiel Matos collected 17 kills and 15 digs for her sixth double-double of the season and 19^th of her career
Cailea Gibbs posted 10 kills, five total blocks and two service aces
Nikki Lakman dished out 36 assists and had four service aces.
Jordan Yauch had eight kills, three total blocks and a service ace
Sydney Nemtuda tallied nine kills and 19 digs on the day
Kori Varney notched 21 digs, her second 20+ dig match of the year
FAU is 1-4 in five set matches this season

What's Next
The Owls travel to Rice on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. Eastern. Live stats and video will be available at fausports.com. In-game updates will be available at twitter.com/FAUVolleyball.