Box Score

EDINBURG – Sophomores Anjané Janda and Alisha Watson each set new career-highs in kills to lead the University of Texas-Pan American Broncs volleyball team past the Lamar University Cardinals 3-1 at the UTPA Tournament on Friday at the UTPA Fieldhouse.
 
The Broncs (1-4) won the first set 25-22, but dropped the second set 17-25. The Broncs came back to win the third set 25-23 and the fourth set 25-14.
 
Janda led the Broncs with her first-career double-double, consisting of a career-high 15 kills and a career-high 13 digs to go with one ace. Watson had a career-high 15 kills with seven digs. Freshman Mary Kate Clark came up with a career-high 38 assists. Redshirt senior Maria Kliefoth and junior San Benito alum Kasey Sanchez led the Broncs with three blocks each.
 
Cortney Moore led the Cardinals (0-4) with 15 kills. Chelsea Grant and Autumn Taylor had 11 kills each. Taylor also had a team-high 13 digs while Grant had a team-high three blocks. Ashley Ellis recorded a match-high 47 assists.
 
The Broncs hit .323 (13-3-21) in an offensive-minded first set that featured a lot of back and forth play. The Broncs tried to pull away late, going up 19-16 on a Grant service error, but Moore came up with two kills to help the Cardinals tie it up at 19-19. Watson and Janda combined for the next three kills to give the Broncs the lead back for good.
 
The Broncs were down 7-3 early in the second set, but responded with a 6-2 run that was capped by a pair of Janda kills to tie the set at 9-9. The Cardinals responded with a Taylor kill that sparked a 12-3 run as the Cardinals went up 21-12 and never looked back.
 
The Broncs trailed for much of the third set, but down 14-17, Watson and junior Haley Durham came up with three kills each, freshman Kyra Hill had two and Janda had one to power a 10-3 run that saw the Broncs reach set point before ultimately winning on a bad set by Ellis.
 
The Broncs trailed 0-1 to start the fourth set, and then never trailed again, jumping out to leads of 7-3, 14-5, 17-6 and 21-7 before finishing off their first win of the season.
 
The Broncs continue the tournament at 7 p.m. against Texas Tech. Other matches during the day include the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi facing Texas Tech at 2:40 p.m., and the Cardinals taking on Northern Arizona at 4:30 or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the previous match.

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