EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team set the Division I program record for conference wins with its 11^th of the season after defeating California Baptist University (CBU) 3-2 (25-22, 25-14, 20-25, 24-26, 15-11) on Thursday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. 
 
UTRGV (20-8, 11-3 WAC) recorded its 20^th win of the season for only the second time in Division I program history after winning 21 matches in 2016. The win is also UTRGV's sixth straight win. 
 
Senior Ragni Steen Knudsen and junior Barbara Silva paced the UTRGV offense with 17 kills each. Knudsen recorded her 11^th double-double of the season after also posting 20 digs in the match. Senior Dubravka Vukoja and sophomore Debora Nazario set up the offense with 26 and 25 assists, respectively, while senior Gysell Zayas posted 29 digs to lead the defense.
 
In the process, Zayas moved into 10^th place on the Division I program's all-time career digs list and became the 10^th player in Division I program history to record at least 1,000 digs. 
 
It was a tight contest in the first set as the match saw seven ties and two lead changes. UTRGV got out to a 3-1 lead after a kill by Knudsen. UTRGV got its biggest lead of the set at 10-6 with a kill by freshman Pamela Moreira. Later in the set, CBU got with 16-15 after a UTRGV error but a kill by Silva padded UTRGV's lead. 
 
CBU took a 20-19 lead on a kill by Megan Sester but UTRGV got points in six of the final eight plays to close out the set.
 
UTRGV found themselves trailing in the second set as CBU took the 9-7 lead after an error but answered with a 16-7 to take the set and a commanding 2-0.

CBU was determined not to go down in third set as they hit 61 percent compared to UTRGV's 50 percent. CBU jumped out to a 4-3 lead but UTRGV won back-to-back points to take the lead at 5-4 after a kill by Silva. UTRGV took its biggest lead of the set at 8-5 after another kill by Silva but CBU rallied with a 5-2 to take the lead for good.
 
The fourth set saw 11 ties and seven lead changes as UTRGV won the first two points before CBU put together a 7-1 run to take the 7-3 lead. UTRGV regained the lead with a kill by junior Talita Oliveira that made it 9-8. Later in the set UTRGV took its biggest lead of the set at 19-15 after another kill by Oliveira. UTRGV held at 24-23 lead before CBU won the last three points to force a fifth set. 
 
CBU jumped out to a 4-1 lead after an ace by Tesa Oaks but UTRGV answered back with a 9-2 run giving them the 10-6 lead after Oliveira and Moreira teamed up for a block. UTRGV pushed its lead to 14-10 after a CBU service error before closing out the set and the match.
 
UTRGV will be back in action on November 15 when it hosts Chicago State at the UTRGV Fieldhouse at 7 p.m.

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