CHICAGO, Ill. – Junior
Ragni Steen Knudsen recorded 12 of her career-high 25 kills over the final two sets to spark The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team to a 3-2 (21-25, 25-18, 19-25, 25-21, 15-8) come from behind victory over Chicago State University (CSU) on Thursday at the Jacoby Dickens Center.
UTRGV (13-9, 7-2 WAC) has now won an NCAA Division I program record-tying seven conference matches for the second year in a row.
With UTRGV trailing the match 1-2 and the fourth set 0-1, Knudsen came up with a kill to tie the set. UTRGV built a big lead, going up 9-3 on Knudsen's next kill, but CSU (10-16, 1-9 WAC) came back to within 9-12 before another Knudsen kill put UTRGV up four. CSU climbed to within two at 17-19 when back-to-back Knudsen kills put UTRGV up four. Knudsen also had kills to put UTRGV up 23-19 and 24-20.
CSU won the first two serves of the fifth set before a Knudsen kill put UTRGV on the board. Knudsen's next kill put UTRGV up 8-6, and then she had a pair of kills during UTRGV's 7-1 run to end the match.
For the match, Knudsen made just four errors on 53 attacks for a .396 hitting percentage. Senior
Bojana Mitrovic finished with 16 kills on .293 hitting, nine digs and five blocks.
Carmen Carvajal led CSU with 22 kills and 17 digs.
Lauryn Dela Cruz recorded 16 kills and 13 digs.
Paige Eyring finished with 13 kills.
Alexandria Cliff recorded 10 kills on .333 hitting.
Lacee Adams dished out 58 assists.
After dropping the first set, UTRGV engaged CSU in a back-and-forth start to the second set before breaking a 10-10 tie with kills by Knudsen and Mitrovic and a block junior
Alexandra Ecker. UTRGV pushed its lead to seven on a block by Ecker and sophomore
Barbara Silva that made the score 23-16. Then after kills by Carvajal and Dela Cruz, UTRGV won the set on back-to-back Dela Cruz errors.
UTRGV is back in action on Saturday at 1 p.m. at UMKC.
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