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EDINBURG –The second-seeded University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team fell to fourth-seeded CSU Bakersfield 1-3 (27-25, 18-25, 28-30, 18-25) in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament Championship match on Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in front of record crowd of 1,634.
UTRGV (17-12) finishes the season 11-1 at home after welcoming a program-record 8,861 fans to the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
Junior
Ragni Steen Knudsen and senior
Bojana Mitrovic earned All-Tournament Team honors. Knudsen averaged 5.50 kills and 2.50 digs per set while Mitrovic averaged 3.13 kills and 2.63 digs per set during the tournament.
In this match, Knudsen led UTRGV with 18 kills and 11 digs for her 10
th double-double of the season. Sophomore
Barbara Silva recorded 11 kills on .308 hitting with a season-high six blocks. Junior
Alexandra Ecker posted a season-high tying eight blocks.
Sydney Haynes led CSU Bakersfield (19-13) with 19 kills on .459 hitting.
Aleksandra Djordjevic recorded 14 kills, 12 digs and four blocks.
Mattison DeGarmo finished with 12 kills.
Desiree Sukhov recorded 10 kills on .318 hitting with 11 digs and four aces.
CSU Bakersfield led by as many as five in the first set, going up 11-6. UTRGV responded by winning the next four serves as part of a 6-1 run to tie the set at 12. Neither team led by more than two the rest of the way. CSU Bakersfield had the first crack at set point, going up 24-23 on a Djordjevic kill before a Silva kill and an ace by freshman McAllen alum
Kellie Woodin put UTRGV up 25-24. One serve later, with the set tied at 25, Mitrovic and junior
Dubravka Vukoja came up with kills to end the set.
The second set was tight early, with UTRGV going up 15-14 on a Mitrovic kill. Haynes responded with four kills as CSU Bakersfield won six-straight serves to spark an 11-3 run to end the set.
CSU Bakersfield's momentum carried over to the third set, as the team ran out to a 17-8 lead. That's when UTRGV caught fire, scoring six-straight points as part of a 13-3 run to take a 21-20 lead. CSU Bakersfield won four of the next five serves to get to set point at 24-22. A Knudsen kills and an attack error allowed UTRGV to tie the set. UTRGV ended up successfully defending on set point four times, before reaching set point at 28-27 on an ace by sophomore
Julia Moctezuma. Haynes and
Briannah Mariner responded with a block and then Haynes and Djordjevic came up with kills to end the set.
The fourth set was close early, as a kill by freshman Los Fresnos alum
Jackie Kingsbury tie the set at 11. CSU Bakersfield, however, won eight of the next 10 serves while closing the match on a 14-7 run.
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