EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros volleyball team had a seven-set winning streak snapped in a 1-3 (25-23, 21-25, 18-25, 12-25) loss to the Utah Valley University Wolverines on Thursday at the UVU PE Building.
 
Sophomore Bojana Mitrovic led the Vaqueros (11-17, 4-9 WAC) with 16 kills, nine digs and two blocks. Senior Haley Durham had 13 kills and seven digs. Junior Alisha Watson had nine kills and four blocks. Junior Joanna Boronczyk also had four blocks with three kills on four attacks. Freshman Dubravka Vukoja dished out 34 assists with eight digs. Junior Fatoumata Dacosta had 12 digs.
 
Madison Dennison led the Wolverines (14-12, 9-4 WAC) with 13 kills on .611 hitting and four blocks. Abby Jensen had 11 kills on .391 hitting and six digs. Lauren Bakker had 10 kills on .261 hitting, six blocks and three aces. Sierra Starley had 32 assists and nine digs.
 
The Wolverines jumped out to leads of 5-1 and 7-2 in the first set, but a block by Mitrovic and freshman Alexandra Ecker followed by two Mitrovic kills sparked a 6-1 run as the Vaqueros tied the set at 8. The Wolverines scored the next five points to regain the lead, and still led by five at 15-10 when two more Mitrovic kills powered a 6-0 run that saw the Vaqueros take the lead back. The next time either team led by two was 22-20 Wolverines after a Jensen kill, The Wolverines still led 23-22 a few serves later, but a Durham kill, an ace by Vukoja, and a block by Watson and Boronczyk ended the set.
 
Durham had a pair of early kills in the second set as the Vaqueros took a 5-2 lead, but the Wolverines came back to tie it at 5 on a block by Bakker and Lexi Thompson. The teams started trading points from there, with the Wolverines going up 11-9 on a Thompson kill. Durham responded with a kill and an ace to spark a 6-0 run that saw the Vaqueros go up 15-11. The Vaqueros still had the lead at 21-19 after an attack error by Jensen, but Dennison and Kiahna Steiner each had two kills as the Wolverines ended the set on a 6-0 run.
 
The Vaqueros scored the first three points of the third set en route to a 5-1 lead. The Vaqueros still led by four after a Watson kill made it 6-2, but the Wolverines scored nine of the next 10 points as part of a 19-5 run to push the set out of reach.
 
The fourth set was tight early, as it was tied at 4, and then the Vaqueros were within 7-8 after a Mitrovic kill and 10-11 after a Durham kill. The Wolverines, however, closed the set on a 14-2 run.
 
The Vaqueros close out the regular season on Saturday at 3 p.m. when they visit Seattle U.

Support UTRGV Volleyball | Become a Fan on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | Follow us on Instagram | Follow us on YouTube