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EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team closed out a three-match home stand with a 3-1 (25-16, 25-23, 19-25, 25-16) victory over Utah Valley University (UVU) on Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
 
Senior Barbara Thais Krug led UTRGV (16-8, 7-3 WAC) with a career-high nine kills on .273 hitting and a career-high 17 digs. Senior Ragni Steen Knudsen finished with a team-high 12 kills and eight digs. Freshman Pamela Moreira posted her third double-double with 10 kills on .474 hitting and 12 digs. Junior Barbara Silva also had 10 kills. Junior Tailita Oliveira recorded a match-high six blocks.
 
Kristen Allred led UVU (11-11, 3-6 WAC) with 19 kills and 11 digs. Kazna Tarawhiti recorded 17 kills and nine digs.
 
The first set was tight early, but with the score tied at 6, Moreirahad two kills and senior Antonela Jularic added one to help UTRGV go on a 10-1 run to take a 16-7 lead. UTRGV and UVU exchanged points most of the rest of the way before back-to-back Knudsen kills ended the set.
 
UTRGV led 5-4 on a Knudsen ace, but three Tarawhiti kills helped UVU go on a 7-1 run to take an 11-6 lead. UTRGV won four of the next five serves as part of a 10-4 run to take a 16-15 lead on a Silva kill. UTRGV extended its lead to 21-18 on a block by Silva and Oliveira before UVU scored four-straight points to take the lead. Krug, who entered the match late in the set,answered by bookending a 4-1 run with kills to give UTRGV a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
After dropping the third set, UTRGV went down 5-8 early in the fourth set before three Krug kills fueled a 10-2 run to put UTRGV up 15-10. Then, with the score 17-13, back-to-back Knudsen kills sparked an 8-3 run to end the match.
 
UTRGV opens up a three-match road trip on Saturday at 3 p.m. at New Mexico State.

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