COLLEGE STATION – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) volleyball team swept Northwestern State University (NSU) 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 27-25) to open up the Texas A&M Invitational on Thursday at Reed Arena.
 
Senior Barbara Silva led UTRGV (5-3) with 16 kills on .333 hitting. Sophomore Sarah Cruz recorded 10 kills. Freshman Victoire Nama finished with eight kills and four aces. Junior Debora Nazario dished out 36 assists with 11 digs for her fourth double-double.
 
Hannah Brister led NSU (6-3) with 20 kills. Kourtney Seaton finished with 11 kills.
 
UTRGV trailed at the start of the first set when a kill by senior McAllen Memorial alum Draik Banks and back-to-back Nama aces gave UTRGV a 6-4 lead. UTRGV pushed its lead to 9-6 on a kill by junior Veronika Jandova before NSU won four-straight serves to take the lead. Then, with the score tied at 11, a Silva kill sparked a 6-2 run to put UTRGV up 17-13. NSU came back to tie the set twice, including at 20 before back-to-back blocks by Silva, one with Jandova and one with Banks, gave UTRGV the lead for good.
 
The second set was tight early, with the first multi-point lead coming when NSU went on a 7-0 run to take a 15-9 lead. After a UTRGV timeout, though, Silva came up with three kills to help UTRGV score six-straight points to tie the set. NSU again took the lead, going up 18-16 before three Nama kills powered a 5-1 run to give UTRGV a 21-19 advantage. Two serves later, with the score tied, junior Los Fresnos alum Jackie Kingsbury recorded a kill, Jandova followed with an ace, and then Banks and Kingsbury combined on a block to give UTRGV set point. One serve later, a Banks kill ended the set.
 
UTRGV jumped out to leads of 3-0 and 4-1 in the third set. NSU got as close as 4-5, but a Silva kill started a 7-1 run to put UTRGV up 12-5. NSU won six of the next eight serves to climb to within 11-14 before two more Silva kills helped UTRGV push its lead to 17-12. UTRGV still led by five at 20-15 when NSU scored five-straight points to tie the set. Cruz responded with a kill to restore UTRGV's lead. The set went back and forth from there, with UTRGV leading 22-21 on a kill by junior Samaret Caraballo, 23-22 on a Nama kill, 24-23 on a Silva kill, and 25-24 on another Nama kill. One serve later, Cruz and Jandova recorded kills to end the match.
 
UTRGV plays twice on Friday, first against Texas State at 12:30 p.m. and then against host Texas A&M at 7:30.

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