EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros volleyball team beat the San José State University Spartans 3-2 (25-16, 17-25, 25-17, 25-27, 15-10) to win the inaugural University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Tournament on Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
 
Sophomore Bojana Mitrovic earned MVP honors while junior Alisha Watson and senior Haley Durham also garnered All-Tournament Team recognition.
 
Throughout the tournament, Mitrovic averaged 3.09 kills and 3.36 digs per set, including a match-high 23 kills on .262 hitting to go with 15 digs, three blocks and two aces against the Spartans (3-4).
 
Watson averaged 2.73 kills per set while recording eight aces during the tournament, including 12 kills, nine digs and four aces in the finale.
 
Durham averaged 2.00 kills and 1.18 blocks while finishing with five kills, five blocks, four digs and two aces on Saturday.
 
All-Tournament Team honoree Summer Avery and Tyanna Roy led the Spartans with 15 kills each. Nandyala Gama had 12 kills. Breann Robinson recorded 36 assists and 16 digs. Sara Hibbs posted eight kills and five blocks. All-Tournament Team honoree Jamie Hirai finished with 20 digs, three assists and one ace.
 
The Spartans scored the first two points of the first set, but a kill by junior Alisha Watson got the Vaqueros (4-3) on the board and then a kill by Mitrovic made it 5-3 Vaqueros. After a Spartans point, the Vaqueros took advantage of four errors and an ace by senior Haley Durham to score five-straight points and kick off an 11-4 run take control.
 
The Vaqueros outhit the Spartans .238 to -.032 in the set. In the second set, however, the Spartans used a pair of kills by Roy to go up 6-1 out of the gate. The Spartans maintained their lead throughout, going up by as many as eight at 19-11 on a kill by Robinson. The Spartans outhit the Vaqueros  .234 to .056 in the set.
 
Watson had back-to-back kills as the Vaqueros scored the first five points of the third set en route to a 9-1 lead. The Vaqueros extended that lead to 16-5 on a Mitrovic kill. The Spartans pulled to within five at 15-20, but a kill by sophomore Tina Sekulic sparked a 5-2 run to close out the set.
 
The Spartans jumped out to leads of 6-2 and 7-3, but the Vaqueros used kills by freshman Alexandra Ecker and Mitrovic to score five-straight and take the lead. The Spartans responded with five-straight points to go up 13-8. The Spartans extended their lead to 17-11 on an attack error, but the Vaqueros responded with an 11-5 run to tie the set on a Watson kill. The Spartans got the next two points to reach set point, but after the Vaqueros tied it on consecutive errors before reaching match point on a Mitrovic kill. Back-to-back kills by Gama and one by Roy, however, sent the match to a fifth set.
 
The fifth set was tight early, but with the Vaqueros down 4-5, Mitrovic and Ecker combined on a block, and then Ecker and Watson came up with kills to give the Vaqueros the lead. The Spartans came back to within 8-9 on a Summer kill, but Mitrovic had three kills to power a 6-2 run to end the match.
 
The Vaqueros kick off an eight-match road trip on Friday at 3 p.m. when they open up the Comfort Suites Islanders Classic against host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

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