RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros volleyball team clinched the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championship and the No. 1 seed in the WAC Tournament by beating the Abilene Christian University Wildcats 3-1 (23-25, 25-16, 25-17, 25-18) on Thursday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
UPDATE (10:58 p.m.): UTRGV clinched the championship outright when Utah Valley fell at California Baptist 1-3.
This is UTRGV's (23-5, 12-1 WAC) second WAC Championship after previously winning the title in 2018.
UTRGV hosts the WAC Tournament Nov. 17-19 at the UTRGV Fieldhouse, with any UTRGV matches taking place at 7 p.m.
UTRGV plays Tarleton in the regular season finale on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
Tickets for the Tarleton match, which features a pre-match ceremony honoring the 2011 and 2013 UT Brownsville national championship teams, and the WAC Tournament can be purchased at
UTRGVTickets.com. Current UTRGV students receive free general admission with their student ID. All fans need to follow the clear bag policy, details of which can be found at
GoUTRGV.com/ClearBag.
Fans unable to attend either matches in person can watch domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally on
WAC International.
UTRGV is now one of only seven 23-win teams in the NCAA, along with along with Western Kentucky (26-2), Towson (24-1), Pittsburgh (24-2), South Dakota (25-2), Wright State (24-3), and Houston (23-2).
The 23 victories make this the winningest season in program history, breaking the record of 22 set by the 2018 WAC Championship team.
Graduate student
Sarah Cruz led the Vaqueros with 16 kills on .325 hitting, seven digs and four blocks. Cruz now has 476 kills this season, breaking the program record of 471 set by Ragni Steen Kneudsen in 2016.
Sophomore
Margherita Giani recorded a season-high tying 12 kills on .550 hitting with six blocks and one ace. Junior
Luisa Silva Dos Santos posted 12 kills on .500 hitting with two aces. Sophomore
Luanna Emiliano recorded her 19
th double-double with 44 assists, 12 digs and a season-high tying four kills on .571 hitting. Sophomore
Perris Key recorded nine kills on .304 hitting with five digs. Sophomore
Claudia Lupescu posted six kills and six digs. Junior
Regina Tijerina finished with 13 digs.
Ashli Edmiston led the Wildcats (7-18, 4-9 WAC) with 14 kills and 11 digs.
Jada Birkel recorded 14 kills on .560 hitting.
Bryley Steinhilber posted 11 kills.
After dropping the first set, the Vaqueros fell behind 1-3 in the second set. Kills by Lupescu and Key helped the Vaqueros score three-straight points to take the lead. Then, with the score tied at 6, a Cruz kill and three-straight blocks by Giani fueled a 9-0 run to put the Vaqueros up 15-6. The Vaqueros and Wildcats traded points for most of the rest of the set. With the score 23-16, Giani and Cruz came up with kills to end the set.
The third set was tight early, but with the score tied at 7, the Vaqueros went on a 6-1 run, capped by a Giani kill, to take a 13-8 lead. The Vaqueros led 15-11 when they went on a 7-3 run, punctuated by a Cruz kill, to push the set out of reach.
Set four was tied at 5 when Santos came up with a kill and an ace to spark a 10-1 run to put the Vaqueros up 15-6. The Wildcats responded with a 6-2 run to pull within 12-17, but the Vaqueros followed with a 6-2 run to go up 23-14 and push the match out of reach.
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