CORPUS CHRISTI – Playing their first match in 428 days, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros volleyball team fell to the UTSA Roadrunners 2-3 (25-22, 23-25, 16-25, 27-25, 16-18) on Friday at Dugan Wellness Center.
 
The Vaqueros (0-1) face host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, at 6:30 p.m.
 
Senior Veronika Jandova led the Vaqueros with a career-high 19 kills on .455 hitting with seven digs and three aces. Junior Sarah Cruz recorded her sixth-career double-double with 17 kills and 12 digs. Senior Samaret Caraballo posted her first-career double-double with a career-high 15 kills and 19 digs. Graduate student Mackenzie Coates dished out 50 assists with 11 digs in her UTRGV debut.
 
Amanda Ifeanyu led the Roadrunners (1-0) with 21 kills on .529 hitting. Hannah Lopez posted 15 kills and 22 digs. Hunter Coppola recorded 12 kills with 16 digs and three blocks. Bianca Ejesieme finished with 12 kills and three blocks.
 
The Vaqueros jumped out to a 3-1 first set lead on kills by freshman Ada Bulgur and Jandova. The Roadrunners won three of the next four serves to tie the set, but a Jandova kill and two kills by freshman Revna Çakir helped the Vaqueros go up 8-5. Then, with the score 10-8, the Vaqueros scored four-straight points, including two Jandova kills and one by Coates to take their largest lead of the set at 14-8. The Roadrunners responded with a 7-2 run to pull close and eventually tied the set at 21. The Vaqueros called timeout and then scored three-straight points, including an ace by senior Debora Nazario, to reach set point. One serve later, a kill by Jandova, her sixth in seven attacks, ended the set. 
 
In their UTRGV debuts, Çakir finished with three kills on three attacks while Bulgur finished with eight kills and seven digs.
 
The Roadrunners jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the second set before a Cruz kill and a pair of Jandova aces helped the Vaqueros to score four-straight points and pull to within one. The Vaqueros took their first lead at 12-11 on an error, but the Roadrunners won the next five serves to regain the lead. The Vaqueros responded with a 6-1 run, capped by a Cruz block, to take an 18-17 lead. The Roadrunners scored four-straight points to take the lead before the Vaqueros went on a 4-1 run to tie the set at 22. One serve later, a Cruz kill tied the set at 23, but the Roadrunners got kills from Courtney Walters and Coppola to take the set.
 
The Vaqueros led early in the third set, going up 7-5 and 8-6 on Cruz kills. Another Cruz kill gave the Vaqueros a 9-8 lead, but the Roadrunners responded with a 6-2 run, and then with the score 16-13, the Roadrunners went on a 9-3 run to end the set.
 
The Roadrunners went up 7-4 early in the fourth set. The Vaqueros responded with a 5-1 run, capped by a Caraballo kill, to take the lead. The Roadrunners won the next three serves to go up 12-10 before the Vaqueros tied the set at 12 on a Nazario ace. The Roadrunners scored the next two points, but the Vaqueros responded with a 5-1 run to take a 17-15 lead. Then, with the Vaqueros up 19-17, the Roadrunners went on a 5-0 run to take the lead. The Roadrunners reached match point at 24-21 before a Jandova kill, a Caraballo ace, a block by Jandova and Coates and another Jandova kill brought the Vaqueros to set point. One serve later, Coates and Caraballo came up with kills to send the match to a decisive fifth set.
 
Neither team led by more than two for most the fifth set, with the Vaqueros going up 2-0 on a Nazario kill, and the Roadrunners going up 9-7 on an Ejesieme kill and 10-8 on an error. The Vaqueros tied the set at 10 on a Caraballo kill before the Roadrunners scored three-straight points to take the only three-point lead of the set. Jandova answered with back-to-back kills as the Vaqueros scored four-straight points to go up 14-13. The Roadrunners reached match point at 15-14 before a Coates kill tied the set. The Roadrunners reached match point again at 16-15, and then a Bulgur kill tied the set. The Roadrunners reached match point one more time at 17-16, and this time a Coppola kill ended the match.

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