PROVO, Utah – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team fell to No. 10 BYU 0-3 (17-25, 17-25, 16-25) on Friday at the BYU Invitational at Smith Fieldhouse.
 
Junior Ragni Steen Knudsen led UTRGV (0-2) with 14 kills and five digs. Sophomore Barbara Silva finished with 10 kills while senior Bojana Mitrovic had eight kills and seven digs. Freshman Debora Nazario dished out 21 assists. Junior Gysell Zayas posted a match-high 16 digs.
 
Kennedy Redding led BYU (2-0) with 11 kills on .550 hitting. Lyndie Haddock dished out 30 assists, Mary Lake finished with 14 digs, and Cosy Burnett had a match-high 10 blocks.

The score was tight for much of the first set, as UTRGV took leads of 6-5 on a Knudsen kill and 7-6 on a kill by junior Alexandra Ecker. UTRGV trailed by one at 10-11 after a Mitrovic kill and two at 12-14 after a Silva kills, but BYU closed the set on an 11-5 run.
 
The second set was close most of the way as well, with UTRGV leading 3-2 on a Mitrovic kill and 4-3 on a block by Silva and Ecker. After BYU took the lead, UTRGV tied the set five times, including at 12-12 on a Silva kill, but BYU scored six of the next seven points to push the set out of reach.
 
BYU scored the first six points of the third set and never led by less than four throughout the set to complete the sweep.
 
UTRGV closes out the tournament against Saint Louis on Saturday at 12 p.m.

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