LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team knocked off three-time defending Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Champion New Mexico State 3-2 (26-24, 13-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-13) on Saturday at the Pan American Center.
 
UTRGV (17-8, 8-3 WAC) is now just half a game back of California Baptist (9-3 WAC) for first place. UTRGV is tied for second place with Kansas City (8-3 WAC) and half a game ahead of NM State (17-6, 7-3 WAC).
 
UTRGV is the first team to beat New Mexico State in Las Cruces since No. 11 UCLA on Sept. 1, 2017, snapping a 20-match winning streak.
 
Senior Ragni Steen Knudsen led UTRGV with 21 kills on .263 hitting. Junior Barbara Silva recorded 11 kills and four blocks. Senior Dubravka Vukoja posted her fifth double-double with 38 assists, 13 digs and five blocks. Senior Alexandra Ecker recorded a season-high 10 blocks with six kills while junior Talita Oliveira added eight blocks and four kills.
 
Cat Kelly led NM State with 18 kills on .469 hitting.Tatyana Battle recorded 15 kills and 10 digs. Megan Hart finished with 10 kills and five blocks.
 
The first set was tight early, with UTRGV going up 10-9 on an Oliveira kill. NM State responded with a 12-3 run to take a 21-13 lead. UTRGV won six of the next seven serves to pull within 19-22 on an error, but NM State scored the next two points to reach set point. A trio of aces by senior Gysell Zayas, however, powered a 7-0 run to end the set and put UTRGV up 1-0.
 
After dropping the second set, UTRGV fell behind 3-5 at the start of the third set. A kill and an Ecker ace, however keyed an 8-1 run to put UTRGV up 11-6. NM Stated pull within 11-13 before UTRGV pushed back with a 7-0 run to take a 20-11 lead on a block by Ecker and Vukoja. NM State scored the next five points as part of an 8-1 run to pull within 20-21. After a timeout, however, a pair of Knudsen kills, a Vukoja kill and an Oliveira kill ended the set.
 
Then, in the fifth set, UTRGV fell behind 2-5 before kills by Knudsen and Ecker helped to tie the score. Then, with UTRGV down 6-7, a Kndusen kill was the first of three-straight points for UTRGV to make the score 9-7. NM State pulled even at 10-10, 11-11 and 12-12, but each time a Silva kill gave UTRGV the lead. Then, with the score tied at 13, an Ecker kill gave UTRGV match point and a block by Knudsen and Oliveira ended the match.
 
UTRGV is back in action on Thursday at 8 p.m. at Grand Canyon.

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