UNT will open the tournament with its first Power Five matchup of the season against host Oregon State on Friday, Sept. 9 at noon CDT and can be seen live on Pac-12 Plus. The all-time record is evenly split at 1-1 with the previous two contests coming at the 2017 North Texas Invitational and 2018 Kansas State Invitational.
The team will face Portland in the second half of a doubleheader on Friday at 7 p.m. CDT. The final match of the weekend for the Mean Green will be a matchup versus Portland State at 4:30 p.m. CDT on Saturday, Sept. 10. North Texas has never competed against either school in volleyball.
“This weekend is definitely going to be a test and we’re going to have to work for everything,” head coach Kristee Porter said. “I’m excited to see our team compete and how we respond to tough competition.”
North Texas are on a three-match sweep streak, posting shutouts against Texas A&M-Commerce, UT Arlington and Texas Southern. In Tuesday’s match versus TSU, the Mean Green only allowed 32 points, the fewest in a single match since the 25-point rally scoring era began in 2008. The team also posted a season-high .337 attack percentage.
Sh’Diamond Holly led the team in points recording seven kills on nine attacks for a .778 attack percentage, adding five total blocks. Treyaunna Rush recorded 10 kills followed by Truly Levy with nine, Andrea Owens finishing eight and Aryn Johnson tallying five along with three service aces and 11 digs.
Ceci Harness added 16 assists with Lauren Phillips contributing 13 in the sweep. Aleeyah Galdeira accounted for 13 digs pushing her career number to 992, needing only eight to reach 1,000 for her career.
Three UNT players currently rank top 10 in the country in their respective categories with Holly in fourth with 38 total blocks, ranking first in C-USA at 1.31 blocks per set. Galdeira is fourth in the nation with 154 digs to place herself 12th in digs per set at 5.31. Rush is ninth with 110 kills and 10th in points at 123.5 on the season.
