Box Score LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Junior Marleen de Zoete needed 20 assists to become the first Trojan with 3,000 assists for her career. She accomplished that feat Friday night (Oct. 25) – in the first set alone.
UALR (16-6, 8-2 Sun Belt) won a nail-biter in the first set, 31-29, and went on to sweep Troy (9-15, 4-6 SBC) by scores of 25-20 in the second set and 25-14 in the third set.
UALR hit above .300 in every set, including a blazing .613 in the third set alone, and finished the match hitting .405. The home team held Troy to only .164 hitting. UALR led in digs 57-36, assists 56-35 and digs 53-40.
UALR also stuffed Troy at the net, 9.5-2.5.
Junior Edina Begic hit .535 for the match with 28 kills and nine digs. The 28 kills bests her own personal record of 23 kills in a straight-set match, set earlier this year against Northern Illinois on Sept. 13. Sophomore Sonja Milanovic hit .429 with three blocks. De Zoete led the match with 49 assists.
Starting her first match, freshman Kelsey Leech added a match-best 14 digs while both junior Adisa Hodzic and redshirt freshman Carolee Dillard contributed four blocks.
For Troy, Kiah Cheatham had 16 kills while Alexandra Alexander contributed a double-double with 30 assists and 11 digs. Ali Dowdall led the visitors with 12 digs.
Set one was tight throughout with UALR edging out to an 8-4 lead on a Begic kill and a Milanovic-Hodzic block. However, Begic hit an error on the serve and three aces by Dowdall tied the frame at eight. With the set tied at 22, a pair of kills by Troy's Cheatham gave the visitors a pair of set points. UALR answered and got themselves on set point thanks to a Begic kill, a Hodzic-Begic block and another Begic kill.
To stop UALR momentum, Troy called timeout and Cheatham tied the set at 25. Both team sided out the next eight points; however, UALR never trailed the rest of the way. Tied at 29, Begic got a kill and a de Zoete solo block put the home team up a set.
Begic (11) and Milanovic (10) both reached double-digits in kills in the first frame.
Set two saw another big UALR comeback to send the Trojans to intermission up a pair of sets. Tied at 17, UALR hit a pair of attack errors and then called timeout. A Milanovic kill stopped the Troy run and UALR took the lead back on a pair of Troy hitting errors. A triple block by Begic, Dillard and de Zoete put UALR up 21-19 and forced a Troy timeout. Blair Winston stopped the momentum with a kill for the visitors, but Begic found the floor on a swing to put Leech on serve. Leech followed with her first collegiate ace, followed by two Begic kills put UALR up 2-0.
UALR never trailed in the third set and won the finale by 11. After both teams sided out to begin the set, a de Zoete kill from Leech's bump put Leech on serve. Leech recorded another assist on a de Zoete swing, followed by a pair of Begic kills around a Troy error to put the home team up 6-1. Troy pulled within three on a Cheatham kill and an ace from Kelley Curran, but a Begic kill and ace put UALR back up five. The home Trojans punctuated the set when leading 18-11. Begic recorded a kill to put de Zoete on serve. Two Begic kills and a spike from freshman Rachel Williams put UALR up 11 in what proved to be its largest lead of the set. A Milanovic kill ended the match and gave UALR its first straight-set home victory since Sept. 28, 2012 against ULM.
UALR returns to action tomorrow when it hosts UT Arlington (14-9, 7-3 SBC). It will be the Mavericks first trip to Little Rock to take on the Trojans.
