LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team fell to defending Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Champion New Mexico (NM) State 0-3 (19-25, 17-25, 25-27) on Saturday at the Pan American Center.
 
Junior Bojana Mitrovic led UTRGV (12-7, 3-2 WAC) with 12 kills, eight digs and four blocks. Sophomore Ragni Steen Knudsen finished with 10 kills. Sophomore Alexandra Ecker recorded eight kills on .600 hitting. Freshman Barbara Silva finished with six blocks (four block assists) to break the freshman NCAA Division I program record for block assists previously held by Deanna Schneyer (80, 2005) with 84 this season. Silva now has 91 total blocks this seasons, the third-highest freshman total in NCAA Division I program history and just three shy of tying the record held by Michelle Solsberry (94, 1988).
 
Sasha-Lee Thomas led NM State (15-4, 5-0 WAC) with 11 kills on .364 hitting and three blocks.
 
The first set was tight early, as UTRGV was within 8-10 on an ace by junior Tina Sekulic, but a Thomas kill was the first of four-straight points as NM State pushed its lead to six. NM State extended its lead to 18-11 on a Kassandra Tohm kill and 21-12 on a Tatyana Battle kill. UTRGV scored seven of the next 10 points to pull within 19-24 before a service error ended the set.
 
UTRGV jumped out to leads of 3-2 and 6-5 on kills by senior Alisha Watson in the second set. NM State responded with a 10-3 run to go up six, but UTRGV scored three of the next four to pull within 12-16 on a Silva ace. Then, with the score 13-17 after a Mitrovic kill, NM State went on an 8-4 run to end the set.
 
Ecker had three kills and Mitrovic had two as UTRGV jumped out to a 7-3 third set lead. Then, with the score 7-5, UTRGV scored three of the next four points to go up 10-6 on a kill by sophomore Barbara Thais Krug. NM State responded with a 12-5 run to take an 18-15 lead on a Tohm kill. UTRGV regained the lead on a block by Mitrovic and Krug to go up 23-22. UTRGV reached set point at 24-23 on an Ecker kill and again at 25-24 on a Mitrovic kill, but back-to-back kills by Tohm and a Battle kill ended the match.
 
UTRGV returns home for the next three matches, starting Tuesday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. The first 250 fans in attendance will receive free showdown t-shirts. There will be a pre-match rally in the fieldhouse courtyard starting at 6 p.m.

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