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EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team won the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championship outright by beating Kansas City 3-1 (25-8, 24-26, 25-16, 25-19) on Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
 
UTRGV (22-8, 13-3 WAC) will enter the WAC Tournament as the No. 1 seed for the first time in program history and is set to face either No. 4 Utah Valley or No. 5 and host CSU Bakersfield in the WAC Tournament Semifinals on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
 
This is the first regular season WAC Championship in program history and the second regular season title for a team sport in department history after women's tennis won the WAC Championship this past spring.
 
With the win, UTRGV breaks the NCAA Division I program record wins in a season, now with 22. The previous record was 21, set in 2016, the year UTRGV won the WAC Tournament Championship and reached its first NCAA Tournament.
 
UTRGV finishes WAC play with an NCAA Division I program record 13 conference wins while tying the records for conference home wins (seven) and total home wins (11).
 
Additionally, UTRGV drew 788 fans to extend the single-season program attendance record to 9,786. UTRGV averaged a program record 753 fans per match, breaking the program record of 738 set last season.
 
The eight points allowed to Kansas City (20-10, 11-5 WAC) in the first set tie for the fewest allowed to an opponent this season.
 
In her final regular season home match, senior Ragni Steen Knudsen recorded 13 kills on .480 hitting with eight digs, a season-high three aces and two blocks. Knudsen now has 402 kills this season, making her the first player in program history with three 400+ kill seasons after recording a record 471 kills in 2016 and another 421 kills in 2017.
 
Junior Barbara Silva led UTRGV with 19 kills on .424 hitting.
 
Tyrecia Lukes led Kansas City with 11 kills on .400 hitting and three blocks.
 
UTRGV hit .552 in the first set. After going down 1-2, senior Antonela Jularic recorded a kill and two aces to help UTRGV score five in a row. That was the start of a 22-3 run during which Kansas City never scored twice in a row that saw UTRGV take a 23-5 lead. UTRGV scored the final 11 points of that run, six of which came on Silva kills.
 
After UTRGV dropped the second set, the third set was tight early, as Kansas City was within 4-5. That's when back-to-back Knudsen kills sparked an 11-2 run to give UTRGV a 16-6 lead. Kansas City got as close as 13-19, but UTRGV scored five of the next six points, including kills by Jularic and Kundsen, to push the set out of reach.
 
Kansas City led for much of the fourth set, going up by a much as five at 17-12. UTRGV responded by scoring the next 10 points, including a kill and two aces by Knudsen as part of a 12-1 run, to reach championship point. One serve later, a kill by junior Talita Oliveira ended the match.

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