STATESBORO, Ga. – Qiana Canete tallied 14 kills, eight digs and four blocks to lead UT Arlington to a 3-1 (18-25, 25-18, 25-17, 28-26) Sun Belt volleyball victory over Georgia Southern Friday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.

Stephanie Spencer tallied a season-high 17 kills and added 12 digs to lead Georgia Southern (11-11, 4-3), and Cathrine Murray notched 12 kills and 12 digs. Alex Beecher finished with a match-high 29 digs.

Madison McConnell tallied eight kills and 12 blocks for UT Arlington (11-12, 4-4), and Kaitlyn Granger posted nine kills and three blocks.

The story
Georgia Southern trailed 2-1 in the match but led 21-15 in the fourth set after a ball-handling error on the Mavericks. Granger put down three consecutive kills, and UTA went on to trim the margin to 23-22. Spencer responded with a kill for the Eagles to make it set point, but McConnell answered for the Mavericks. The teams went back and forth from there with each fighting off a set point. With the score tied 26-26, Canete got a kill and Cassidy Wheeler and McConnell combined for a block to end the match.

The Eagles won the first set 25-18 and held the Mavericks to minus .062 hitting, but went on to log 19 hitting errors in the next two sets combined before righting the ship in the fourth. UTA tallied 16 blocks as a team to hold GS to .077 hitting for the match. 

Quotable from coach Dustin Wood
"We have to be more consistent. We came out on fire in the first, but in the second and third, we had too many errors. It's not acceptable, and we have to fix it and make that change. We beat ourselves. We had 15 errors in the second set alone, and that's half a set. We have to turn it around tomorrow and play a lot better."

Next up
The Eagles host Texas State Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse.

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