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EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team broke the NCAA Division I program records for conference wins and best home start by beating UMKC 3-0 (28-26, 25-20, 25-13) on Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
 
Off to its best start in NCAA DI program history, UTRGV (15-7, 5-2 WAC) now has five conference victories to go with a 6-0 home record. This is the first time UTRGV has won 15 matches at the NCAA DI level since 2007 (15-18).
 
Sophomore Ragni Steen Knudsen led UTRGV with 15 kills on .278 hitting. Junior Bojana Mitrovic posted her seventh double-double of the season with 12 kills on .357 hitting and 11 digs. Junior Tina Sekulic also recorded her seventh double-double with 17 assists and 10 digs. Senior Alisha Watson recorded nine kills on .412 hitting with three aces. Freshman Barbara Silva came up with three blocks and now has 103 blocks this season, the second-highest single-season total in NCAA DI program history. The record is 138, set by Lisa Yanez in 1996.
 
Emma Hagedorn led UMKC (10-10, 3-4 WAC) with 12 kills on .625 hitting. Madison Mosier had eight kills with three blocks.
 
The first set was tight throughout, featuring eight lead changes and 21 ties. UTRGV went up 7-4 on back-to-back Watson aces, but that was the largest lead until Knudsen came up with three-straight kills as part of a 4-0 run to put UTRGV up 20-17. UMKC scored the next four to take the lead, and the set stayed within one or tied the rest of the way. UMKC reached set point at 24-23 on a Devan Porter kill, but Mitrovic came up with back-to-back kills to give UTRGV set point. Mitrovic again gave UTRGV set point at 26-25 before UTRGV won it on back-to-back errors.
 
The second set was tight early, but with the score tied at eight, UTRGV scored six of the following nine points to go up 14-11. Then, with UMKC within 13-15 after a block by Hagedorn and Mosier, Mitrovic came up with a kill and an ace to give UTRGV the first four-point lead of the match. UMKC was again within two at 16-18 on a Hagedorn kill, but kills by Knudsen and Watson helped UTRGV score three-straight to pull away.
 
UTRGV jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the third set before extending its lead to 10-3 on a Watson ace and 12-5 on a Knudsen kill. UMKC pull to within 10-14 on a Mosier kill, but UTRGV scored the next five points as part of an 11-3 run to end the match.
 
UTRGV plays its next three on the road, starting Thursday at 7 p.m. when it visits Seattle U.

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