North Texas Volleyball routs Oklahoma 3-1

ADLER · March 5, 2021

UNT vs. OU

Mean Green defeat Oklahoma

Click link for full story and stats: https://meangreensports.com/news/2021/3/4/womens-volleyball-mean-green-rally-to-defeat-oklahoma.aspx

DENTON – The North Texas volleyball team defeated Oklahoma 3-1 (15-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-21) on Thursday at the North Texas Volleyball Center.

Head coach Andrew Palileo moved to 3-0 against the Sooners in his tenure at North Texas.

"This was a big win for us," Palileo said. "We've played well against Oklahoma in the past, and even though we started out rough, there was no panic. We just need to carry this momentum heading into a big back-to-back conference games against Rice this weekend.

Rhett Robinson led the Mean Green with 13 kills and five blocks. Senior middle blocker Miranda Youmans tallied eight kills, four blocks and swung an impressive .467 hitting percentage. Sarah Haeussler, who didn't play most of the first set due to injury, finished with seven kills.

UNT came out of the gates misfiring, as the Sooners took an 11-0 lead to open the match. Despite going on several rallies to close the gap, Oklahoma won the first set 25-15.

"I wasn't sure how we'd come out against them, but it surprised me that we came out kind of flat," Palileo said. "We just had to calm down and get through that first set. Once we did, we could start over and get back to playing our brand of volleyball. Our attacks were better, our sets were better and our defense played well as the match went on."

The Mean Green rallied in a mighty way after the opening set. Although North Texas fell down 6-12 early in the second set, the Mean Green went on an 11-5 run to tie it at 17-17. During that run, North Texas relied on two kills from Kenzie Smith and two blocks from Miranda Youmans.

Smith tallied seven kills while swinging a career-high .500 attack percentage on the night. In the last two matches, the freshman from Edgewood, Texas has been on fire with 15 kills and a .408 hitting percentage.

"I've started to swing better lately, which is a credit to my teammates and coaches," Smith said. "I started out the year playing timid, but the girls have really encouraged me to play more aggressive. Being more aggressive has helped me continue to improve throughout the season."

North Texas led the third and fourth sets from wire-to-wire to take down the Sooners for the third time in a row.

Up Next: North Texas will travel to Rice for back-to-back matches on Sunday, March 7 and Monday, March 8. Both matches are scheduled to start at 1 p.m.