PROVO, Utah – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team beat Saint Louis 3-1 (25-21, 28-26, 20-25, 25-16) to close out the BYU Invitational on Saturday at Smith Fieldhouse.
 
Junior Ragni Steen Knudsen led UTRGV (1-2) with 15 kills, five digs and a career-high six blocks. Sophomore Barbara Silva recorded 13 kills on .480 hitting. Senior Bojana Mitrovic finished with seven kills, 10 digs and seven blocks. Freshman Veronika Jandova came up with a match-high nine blocks, junior Alexandra Ecker finished with eight blocks, and junior Dubravka Vukoja posted a career-high eight blocks to go with 41 assists, a career-high four kills, and six digs.
 
Nenye Okoro led Saint Louis (0-3) with 20 kills, eight digs and three blocks. Maya Taylor finished with 15 kills while Lauren Leverenz finished with 14 kills on .462 hitting. Camilla Rivas recorded a double-double with 45 assists and 13 digs.
 
Saint Louis jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the first set, but after a UTRGV timeout, a Knudsen kill sparked an 8-1 run that saw UTRGV pull even at 11-11. Then, with UTRGV down 12-13, Knudsen, Mitrovic and Jandova combined on a block to help UTRGV win four-straight serves and take its first lead at 16-13. Saint Louis scored the next two to pull within one before a Mitrovic block and a pair of Knudsen kills helped UTRGV to pull away.
 
Saint Louis led early in the second set as well, going up 9-5 on a Taylor kill. UTRGV responded with a 7-2 run, capped by back-to-back Mitrovic kills, to take its first lead at 12-11. UTRGV pushed its lead to 14-12 on a block by Mitrovic and Ecker before Saint Louis went on a 7-2 run to go up 19-16. UTRGV scored the next four points on the power of Silva and Vukoja kills and blocks by Knudsen, Ecker and Vukoja to go up 20-19. Saint Louis won the next two serves, but a Knudsen kill and a block by Jandova and Vukoja put UTRGV up 22-21. UTRGV and Saint Louis traded points over the next 10 serves, but with UTRGV up 27-26, Knudsen came up with a kill to end the set.
 
After dropping the third set, UTRGV came out of the gate on fire in the fourth set, building a 14-6 lead on a Knudsen kill. UTRGV extended its lead to 17-9 on a Jandova kill and 20-11 on another Knudsen kill to seal the victory.
 
UTRGV is back in action on Thursday at 9 p.m. when it opens up the Oregon Classic against No. 18 Oregon.

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