BEAUMONT – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros volleyball team closed out its final non-conference tournament of the season, the Cardinal Classic, with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-12, 25-20) win over the Jackson State University Tigers on Saturday at McDonald Gym.
 
Sophomore Bojana Mitrovic led the Vaqueros (6-7) with 14 kills on .267 hitting. Senior Haley Durham had nine kills on .500 hitting with two blocks. Sophomore Tina Sekulic had 22 assists. Freshman Alexandra Ecker had eight digs with three kills and one block.

Mitrovic earned All-Tournament Team honors after averaging 4.73 kills and 2.27 digs per set during the tournament.
 
Alexsis Ford led the Tigers (0-15) with 11 kills on .400 hitting.
 
The first set was tight throughout, with the first lead of more than two coming when the Tigers went up 10-7 on a service error. The next time a team took a three-point lead was when the Vaqueros took advantage of attack errors to go up 21-18 and 22-19. After three errors allowed the Tigers to tie it, junior Alisha Watson came up with a kill, Mitrovic and Durham combined on a block, and then an attack error ended the set.
 
The second set was tight early, but with the Vaqueros down 5-7, Ecker came up with a pair of kills as the Vaqueros scored five-straight points to spark a 20-5 run to end the set. The Vaqueros scored the final four points of the set on two aces by junior Megan Dempsey and a kill by Mitrovic.
 
The Tigers led 6-5 in the third set, but a Sekulic kill was the first of three-straight points and a 5-1 run that saw the Vaqueros go up 10-7. The Tigers scored the next two points to pull within one, but Mitrovic had three kills during a 9-2 run as the Vaqueros pulled away to complete the sweep.
 
The Vaqueros are back in action on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Prairie View A&M.

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