CEDAR CITY, Utah – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros volleyball team battled for a hard-earned 3-1 (25-13, 26-28, 25-21, 28-26) win Saturday against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds in a Western Athletic Conference (WAC) match at the America First Event Center.
UTRGV (16-11, 10-4 WAC) was led by junior outside hitter
Claudia Lupescu's season-high 18 kills, and she added four digs and three blocks. Freshman outside hitter
Nadine Zech had nine kills and a career-high 14 digs. Freshman outside hitter
Giovana Ribeiro recorded a career-high eight kills with four digs and five blocks. Junior setter
Luanna Emiliano tabbed her 16
th double-double with 46 assists, 21 digs, three kills and three blocks. Junior libero
Kiaraliz Perez had 21 digs and freshman defensive specialist
Isa Bento contributed 10. Junior middle blocker
Margherita Giani had seven kills on .400 hitting with six blocks and senior middle
Luisa Silva Dos Santos added seven blocks, five kills and a season-high five digs.
The Thunderbirds (5-18, 1-12 WAC) got 14 kills from
Natasha Obradovic and
Andrea Spasojevic. They had four players with double-digit digs, led by
Arianna Rossi's 16. Setter
Allison Rohrer had 36 assists, 13 digs and four aces.
UTRGV dominated the first set, getting off to a 5-0 start and never looking back. Lupescu was unstoppable in the frame, converting six straight attacks to kills to help the Vaqueros quickly open up a comfortable 22-8 lead. The defense was stellar, collecting three blocks and getting great digs and diving plays from Perez and Bento. The defensive effort held Southern Utah to -.030 hitting in the first frame – the Thunderbirds recorded just five kills in the 25-13 opening set loss, while Lupescu had seven on her own.
Southern Utah was much more competitive through the final three sets. The Thunderbirds went up early in the second set, but Zech roped back-to-back kills to put the Vaqueros on top, 7-4. The Thunderbirds took a 15-14 lead at the media timeout following a big block. UTRGV went on a 6-1 run out of the break for the 20-16 lead with solid play from the Italian duo of Giani and Zech. Giani assisted on back-to-back blocks with Zech and Emiliano, and the Italians each recorded clutch kills.
Again, Southern Utah fought back. Obradovic tabbed two consecutive kills and used scrappy defense to force some Vaqueros miscues, trimming the lead to 20-19 and forcing a timeout. Lupescu slammed a kill out of the break and Bento made some diving saves to put the Vaqueros back up 23-19, then SUU came right back with five unanswered to reach set point at 24-23. UTRGV fought off three set points, but the Thunderbirds held on to tie the match at 1-1 with a 28-26 second set win.
The teams continued to play each other tight in the third. Both defenses were resilient, leading to long and competitive rallies. Neither team led by more than three points as they battled, always answering a team's scoring run. Junior outside hitter
Ilana De Assis came off the bench and recorded two kills, Lupescu and Giani continued to produce at a high rate, and Santos notched an ace to give UTRGV a little bit of cushion late. Lupescu recorded the final three points of the frame with two kills and a block to push the Vaqueros to a 25-21 win and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Southern Utah took control of the fourth set, claiming its largest lead of the match at 11-6. An ace from Emiliano and a kill from Ribeiro helped close the gap, along with some errors from SUU, but the Thunderbirds got back in rhythm and forced a timeout leading 16-12.
Junior outside hitter
Ingridy Nicoleti Foltran came off the bench and recorded three kills on five swings to spark UTRGV with the fourth set going down to the wire. The Vaqueros used a 6-2 run to take a 19-18 lead after a Lupescu kill, but Southern Utah responded with four in a row behind two aces from Rohrer.
The Thunderbirds were the first to set point, up 24-21, but a Lupescu kill and back-to-back blocks tied things up at 24-24. The teams exchanged blows until Foltran blasted a kill for UTRGV's second match point, and a clutch block by Ribeiro and Giani secured the match at 28-26.
UTRGV tied its best blocking performance on Saturday with 15 blocks and had 85 digs to hold the Thunderbirds to .089 hitting, meaning the Vaqueros held Southern Utah's offense under .100 hitting in both matches between the teams this season.
The Vaqueros return to the UTRGV Fieldhouse for their final two regular season matches starting Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against Tarleton State. To purchase tickets, please visit GoUTRGV.com/Tickets or by contacting the UTRGV Ticket Sales and Operations team of
Ryela Rodriguez (956-665-3747) or
Eddie Galvan (956-665-3415) over the phone or through email at
tickets@utrgv.edu.
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