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HOUSTON – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team dropped its season opening match to Radford 0-3 (23-25, 17-25, 20-25) on Friday at Sharp Gym in the opening match of the 2019 Barcelona Sports Invitational.
 
Junior Veronika Jandova led UTRGV (0-1) with 10 kills on .692 hitting, a career-high tying five digs, and a career-high three aces. In her UTRGV debut, sophomore Sarah Cruz recorded eight kills with five digs. Junior Los Fresnos alum Jackie Kingsbury posted a career-high seven kills with a career-high 10 digs. Junior Debora Nazario dished out a match-high 28 assists with four digs.
 
Stephanie Neast led Radford (1-0) with nine kills and four blocks. Taylor O'Neal recorded seven kills and 10 digs while Hailey Flowers also had seven kills.
 
UTRGV trailed by as much as six in the first set, going down 12-18. Kills by Jandova, senior Barbara Silva and senior McAllen Memorial alum Draik Banks helped UTRGV close to within three at 18-21. Then, on set point, kills by Kingsbury, Jandova and junior Samaret Caraballo brought UTRGV to within 23-24 before a Mackenzie Meehan kill ended the set.
 
After Radford controlled the second set, UTRGV found itself in a back-and-forth affair in set three, going up 16-15 on a Banks kill. The set was tied at 17 on a block by Nazario and Banks, but Radford won the next six serves to push the set out of reach.
 
UTRGV continues the tournament at 4:30 against Bethune-Cookman.

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