COMMERCE – The vintage sports motto of, "it's not how you start, it's how you finish," was proved very true Saturday as The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros volleyball team earned a come-from-behind Southland Conference (SLC) victory over the Texas A&M-Commerce (AMC) Lions, 3-1 (18-25, 25-13, 25-19, 25-16) at The Field House in Commerce.
UTRGV (10-8, 6-2 SLC) erased a slow start and closed the match with a 10-0 run to secure its fourth consecutive victory. Sophomore libero
Celianiz Cabranes notched a career-high 32 digs with four assists and three aces as her late service run helped lift the Vaqueros to victory.
Senior outside hitter
Claudia Lupescu had 16 kills, senior outside hitter
Ilana De Assis added 15 kills with nine digs, and sophomore outside hitter
Nadine Zech tallied 12 kills on .333 hitting with eight digs. Sophomore setter
Isabella Costantini recorded 43 assists, three aces and five digs. Junior Sharyland Pioneer alum
Natalie Reyes tied her career high with four aces in the match.
The Lions (6-15, 3-6 SLC) were led by 14 kills from
Kitana Tuufuli. Ellie Baumert tabbed 25 assists and
Jade Smith had 25 digs.
It was a tale of two sets as Saturday's rematch between the Vaqueros and Lions got underway. Both teams came out strong and never lost their leads, with AMC taking the first set, 25-18, and UTRGV responding to take the second, 25-13. The Lions led by as many as nine points at 22-13 as UTRGV struggled to shake off the slow start. Passing struggles forced the Vaqueros out of system and caused them to scramble on defense – Cabranes tabbed 13 digs in the opening frame. The Vaqueros found some rhythm as they made a late push, but the hole was too deep.
UTRGV capitalized on the momentum created at the end of the first and opened the second set on a 4-0 run with a pair of aces from Costantini. The Vaqueros tallied five aces in the frame and the tough serving slowed the Lions down. UTRGV's offense, on the other hand, was stellar in the set. The Vaqueros hit .556 and only had one attack error on 18 attempts as they cruised to even the match. Lupescu led the way with four kills as Costantini got more arms involved.
The third set was more evenly matched. The Lions jumped on top first, but a pair of aces during a good serving stretch by Reyes helped a 5-0 run that gave UTRGV the advantage at 6-3 after the match's first lead change. The teams exchanged small scoring runs and the set got close with UTRGV up by one, then an offensive flurry extended the cushion to five at the midway break. Zech got hot in the frame, recording five kills including the set winner to seal the 2-1 lead with a 25-19 set. Cabranes was sound defensively, moving around quickly and passing effectively to help the Vaqueros take control.
Set Four went back-and-forth through the first half of the frame, seeing the teams locked at 10-10 before the Lions strung together the first scoring run to lead by two. Reyes' fourth ace, tying her single-match career high set one week ago against the same team, evened things up again at 13-13. Cabranes went on an incredible serving stretch late in the match, fueling a 10-0 run that saw her record a pair of aces and Lupescu take control offensively. UTRGV built a 23-15 lead behind the sophomore libero and held on to secure the 3-1 match victory with a 25-16 set.
The Vaqueros return to the UTRGV Fieldhouse for a pair of matches next week starting with a 12 p.m. School Day match, presented by Whataburger, Thursday against McNeese.
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