RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Senior outside hitter
Sarah Cruz put The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros volleyball team into "Cruz Control" to secure a thrilling five-set win over the Utah Tech Trailblazers 25-21, 33-31, 15-25, 9-25, 15-11 on Thursday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in front of a crowd of 1,127.
Cruz led UTRGV (14-4, 3-0 Western Athletic Conference) with 23 kills, four aces and two blocks. Junior middle blocker
Luisa Silva Dos Santos added 12 kills, and sophomore outside hitter
Perris Key recorded nine kills and one ace. Sophomore setter
Luanna Emiliano dished out 51 assists and had 17 digs. Redshirt junior libero
Regina Tijerina tallied 21 digs.
Utah Tech (6-6, 0-3 WAC) had three players with double digit kills –
Bridgett Talia had 22,
Chayse Daughtery had 15 and
Whitnee Nihipali added 14.
Kate Hardy recorded six blocks, while
Isabelle Iosua, Talea Laufiso and Nihipali each had four. Laufiso also had 45 assists and
Mykenna Nelson had 22 digs.
The Trailblazers jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the first set to force an early timeout. Attack errors and passing woes put the Vaqueros behind by as many as six points to start the first set.
UTRGV responded with a 3-0 run on a Key kill and an ace and kill from Cruz to 13-10. After a back-and-forth stretch, a big block by sophomore middle blocker
Margherita Giani and Cruz tied the set at 18-18. Cruz recorded two consecutive kills to give the Vaqueros their first lead of the frame at 20-19. Key ripped a rocket down the line to secure the come-from-behind set win, 25-21.
UTRGV found itself trailing 7-3 again in the second. Talia and Hardy were on fire to lead Utah Tech offensively. With graduate student defensive specialist
Sydney Schoen at the service line, the Vaqueros went on a 3-0 run to tie at 8-8. Another 3-0 run aided by kills from Key and Rodrigues and a Cruz ace put UTRGV up 15-12. The Trailblazers made a run, but back-to-back kills from Santos gave UTRGV some cushion up 20-17.
Utah Tech never said die, and a late 3-0 run put them even with UTRGV at 23-23. From there, things got wild. The Trailblazers fought off two UTRGV set points and earned four of their own, all stopped by UTRGV. The Vaqueros needed three more set points, the last courtesy of a Key kill, before a Utah Tech attack error ended the set at 33-31 to put UTRGV up 2-0 in the match. UTRGV set a new program record with most points ever scored in a set.
The third set started with the teams swapping points, but Utah Tech took advantage of the Vaqueros' struggles in serve-receive and unforced errors. After getting some breathing room at 12-8, the Trailblazers continued to hit at an incredibly high clip to win the frame 25-15. Utah Tech was hitting .308 on the match while UTRGV's efficiency dropped to .270.
Utah Tech rode that momentum into the fourth set, opening up an 11-4 lead. It had the UTRGV defense scrambling thanks to a .667 hitting percentage and lots of variety in the attack. The Trailblazers' block was active late in the match to help them tie it up at 2-2 after a 25-9 fourth set win.
Cruz's fourth ace of the match and a big kill from sophomore outside hitter
Claudia Lupescu put UTRGV up 4-1 in the fifth. An ace from Schoen forced a UTU timeout with UTRGV up 7-4. Back-to-back Trailblazers blocks tied things up at 7-7, but a pair of aces from Lupescu and a solo block by Cruz gave the edge back to the Vaqueros, up 11-7. Cruz was dominant down the stretch to secure the hard-fought victory 15-11.
The Vaqueros are back in action Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse for a 1 p.m. WAC match against Southern Utah.
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