In an intense four-set battle, it was ultimately the energy of UT Arlington that lifted the Mavericks over University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Saturday afternoon at College Park Center.

UTA held a small lead majority of the first set and pulled away with a late 7-1 run to win 25-19. The Trojans answered with a 20-10 advantage in the second until the Mavericks threw down eight straight points, including three kills from sophomore Qiana Canete, to steal the set 25-23. UALR claimed the third set 25-12, but UTA regained control early in the final set 10-5 and fought to grab the win 26-24.

The Mavericks out-hit the Trojans 58-39 and out-dug the team 74-55, while also hitting a more consistent .126. UTA improved to 13-5 overall and 4-2 in conference play. The loss for the Trojans' is just the second in their last 28 Sun Belt matches and is their first two-game losing streak since the 2013 season. UALR evened their overall record at seven and dropped to 3-1 in conference.

Players of the Match

Canete reached a career-high 23 kills, while hitting .211 with three blocks, 57 attacks and a match-high 25 points. The outside hitter also managed 11 digs. Senior opposite hitter Stacey Koch contributed 15 kills, a team-best .212 hitting percentage and 16.5 match points.

Stat Leaders
Cooney led the match with 23, while also chipping in with four assists and a service ace. Freshman Marisah Ingram notched six blocks and junior Cassidy Wheeler marked 47 assists.

Home Sweet Home
The win extends the Mavericks winning streak at College Park Center to six straight matches and 10 out of their last 11 matches in Arlington. The UTA digging efforts have been especially potent, averaging three more digs per set when playing at home.

Milestone Watch
Cooney surpassed Judith McGill on UTA's career digs leaderboard and now sits fifth with 1,643. Ingram jumped into ninth in the program's freshman single-season record books with 73 block assists. The middle blocker also replaced Torie Dacus with 78 blocks, good for 10th.

Quotable
"It's really just trying to gather some kind of momentum. Mathematically, you're not out of it but the likelihood of you coming back in a set like that is very difficult to do because eventually you run out of time. The defense elevated extremely well over the course of that run." - UT Arlington coach Diane Seymour on erasing 10-point deficit in second set

"It really drove us to play great tonight because they're a good team and I knew they were going to get a lot of kills and blocks on us, so it drove me to play better." - Canete on getting her first career win against Little Rock

"It was a fun for everyone, even the players on the bench. We had a lot of energy and we showed a lot of heart. We did drop it a little bit in the third set, but I think we really showed our potential." -Koch on the team's intensity

Up Next
The Mavericks will take to the road for two Sun Belt matches beginning with rival Texas State at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in San Marcos. UTA will travel to Boone, N.C. Saturday to face Appalachian State at 5:30 p.m. CT.