DENTON – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros volleyball team beat the North Texas Mean Green 3-2 (25-20, 25-15, 28-30, 23-25, 15-10) to close out the North Texas Invite on Saturday at the North Texas Volleyball Center.
Senior
Sarah Cruz recorded led the Vaqueros (2-1) with 26 kills on .304 hitting, 11 digs and five blocks. Junior
Luisa Silva Dos Santos posted 11 kills on .391 hitting and six blocks. Sophomore
Ingridy Foltran also had 11 kills. Sophomore
Margherita Giani recorded 10 kills on .400 hitting and five blocks. Junior
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues posted five kills and five blocks. Sophomore
Luanna Emiliano recorded her third-straight double-double with 55 assists and a career-high tying 19 digs. Graduate student
Sydney Schoen posted 17 digs and two aces and three assists.
Treyaunna Rush led the Mean Green (1-2) with 17 kills and six blocks.
Truli Levy recorded 13 kills and five blocks.
Aryn Johnson posted 12 kills and 10 digs.
Sh'Diamond Holly finished with 11 kills and five blocks.
Ceci Harness dished out 44 assists with eight digs.
The Vaqueros trailed 4-6 in the first set when four Cruz kills and a pair by Giani sparked an 11-2 run to make the score 15-8. The Mean Green responded with an 8-2 run to pull within 16-17. Two serves later, the Vaqueros still led by one when a Cruz kill sparked a 6-2 run to bring the Vaqueros to set point. Santos ended the set with a kill.
Cruz started the second set with a kill and then had another one to give the Vaqueros an 8-3 lead. The Mean Green won 10 of the next 15 serves to tie the set at 13. The Vaqueros responded by scoring six-straight points as part of a 12-2 run, capped by a Santos kill, to win the set.
The Mean Green jumped out to an 8-5 lead in the third set. Giani answered with a kill to spark a 9-1 run, capped by a Schoen ace, to put the Vaqueros up 14-9. The Vaqueros still led by five at 17-12 on a Cruz ace when the Mean Green scored six-straight points to go back on top. Cruz answered with a kill and then an error gave the Vaqueros a 19-18 lead. The Mean Green scored the next three points before back-to-back Giani kills tied the set at 21. One serve later, Giani again tied the set with a kill, this time at 22. The Mean Green reached set point at 24-23 before a Cruz kill tied the set. A Cruz kill tied the set again at 26 and then a Santos kill tied the set at 28 before an error and a block sent the match to a fourth set.
The fourth set was tight early, with the Vaqueros tying it at 3 on a Santos kill, 4 on a Foltran kill, and 5 on a Giani kill. The Mean Green went up 11-7, but after a UTRGV timeout, the Vaqueros went on a 6-2 run to tie the set at 13 on a Foltran kill. The Mean Green won the next three serves before the Vaqueros scored three of the next four points to pull within 16-17 on a Cruz kill. The Mean Green responded by scoring the next three points to go up 20-16. The Vaqueros pulled within 23-24 on a block by Emiliano and Giani, but that's as close as they got.
The Vaqueros scored the first three points of the fifth set. Then, with the score 3-2, Cruz put down a kill and Santos and Rodrigues came up with a block to make the score 5-2. The Mean Green came back to tie the set at 6 and 7. Foltran pushed back with a kill as the Vaqueros won three-straight serves as part of a 5-1 run to go up 12-8. The Mean Green scored the next two points before kills by Santos and Cruz brought the Vaqueros to match point. A ball handling error ended the match.
The Vaqueros play their home opener on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at
UTRGVTickets.com. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Fans unable to attend the match in person can watch domestically on
ESPN+ and internationally on
WAC International.
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