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EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team won its seventh-straight home match, 3-2 (25-20, 26-28, 15-25, 25-21, 15-10) over Grand Canyon University (GCU) on Thursday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
 
Senior Bojana Mitrovic led UTRGV (11-8, 5-1 WAC) with a season-high 21 kills on .302 hitting, 13 digs and three blocks for her seventh double-double. Sophomore Barbara Silva recorded a career-high 20 kills with four blocks. Junior Ragni Steen Knudsen finished with 17 kills and a career-high tying 18 digs for her sixth double-double. Junior Dubravka Vukoja posted her third double-double with 52 assists and a season-high 16 digs.
 
Claire Kovensky led GCU (5-13, 0-6 WAC) with 15 kills, 21 digs, three aces and four blocks. Teagan DeFalco recorded 17 kills and 19 digs. Heidi Carpenter finished with 20 assists and 10 digs while Emily Ahearn recorded 24 digs.
 
Mitrovic started the match with kills on five of the first 10 serves to help UTRGV take an 8-2 lead. UTRGV extended its lead to seven at 13-6 on an attack error and still led by six at 19-13 on a Mitrovic kill. After a timeout, GCU went on a 7-2 run to pull within 20-21, but UTRGV scored the final four points, including two on Silva kills, to take the set.
 
Kills by Mitrovic and Knudsen allowed UTRGV to jump out to a 3-0 lead. GCU won the next three serves to tie the score before UTRGV won five out of six serves to take an 8-4 lead. GCU pulled within 11-12 on a DeFalco kill, but UTRGV extended its lead to 14-11 on a block by Silva and junior Alexandra Ecker. UTRGV still led by three at 23-20 on a block by Knudsen and Ecker, but GCU won the next four serves to take its first lead of the match at 24-23. Back-to-back kills by Mitrovic gave UTRGV set point, but a kill and a block by Maria Adams followed by a Kovensky ace ended the set.
 
GCU took the third set and then held the lead for much of the fourth set. With the set tied at 18, however, UTRGV took the lead on an attack error before getting a block and a kill by Silva to go up by three. UTRGV still led by three at 22-19 on a Silva kill. GCU climbed to within 21-22 on DeFalco ace, but back-to-back Knudsen kills and a block by Vukoja and freshman Veronika Jandova allowed UTRGV to tie the match.
 
The fifth set was tight most of the way, but with the scored tied at eight, Mitrovic came up with three-straight kills to give UTRGV the lead. Then, with the score 12-9, Mitrovic recorded two more kills to give UTRGV match points before a Knudsen kill sealed the victory.
 
UTRGV closes out the first half of WAC play on Saturday at 12 p.m. against CSU Bakersfield at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. Doors open at 11 a.m.

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