GREENVILLE, S.C. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros volleyball team swept the Charleston Southern (CSU) Buccaneers Saturday in a 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-21) win to complete an unbeaten weekend at the Furman Invitational at Alley Gym.
Sophomore outside hitter
Nadine Zech paced the UTRGV (3-0) offense for the second match in a row as she recorded 11 kills on .391 hitting with three aces. Senior outside hitter
Ilana De Assis continued her impressive opening weekend with her second consecutive double-double, notching 10 kills and 10 digs with a career-high five aces. Senior outside hitter
Claudia Lupescu added six kills and sophomore middle blocker and Harlingen High alum
Julianna Bryant tabbed five on .625 hitting with three blocks. Sophomore setter
Isabella Costantini recorded 28 assists with nine digs and two blocks. Sophomore libero
Celianiz Cabranes collected 12 digs and two aces.
Charleston Southern (1-2) was led by
Faith Burch, who had 11 kills on .348 hitting. Eight different Buccaneers recorded at least one kill.
The first few points of the match were decided by errors as both teams shook off some early issues. Back-to-back service aces from Assis created the first scoring run for UTRGV, putting it up 8-4. But the CSU block was effective early and evened things up at 12-12. The Vaqueros got on a roll midway through the opening set, going on a 5-0 run with good serving and variety in the attack, and never looked back, taking the frame 25-17.
UTRGV controlled the majority of Set 2 and went on several scoring runs. Costantini kept the offense spread out and the Vaqueros continued to look strong from the service line, using a pair of aces from Cabranes to take a 12-7 lead. Them, UTRGV tabbed seven consecutive points to extend the advantage to 19-10, forcing the Buccaneers to commit errors. Charleston Southern made a late push, but the hole was too deep and a kill from Bryant put UTRGV up 2-0 with a 25-19 set win.
The Vaqueros showed their fight to come from behind and take the third set, 25-21, to secure the sweep. The Buccaneers led by as many as four points until Costantini tabbed an ace and mixed up her weapons well to snatch a 20-17 lead. CSU evened things up with a 3-0 run, but Assis and Key came up big in the final points to seal the win.
UTRGV recorded double-digit services aces in all three matches, including 13 from five different student-athletes on Saturday. The Vaqueros tallied 39 aces on the weekend.
Up next for the Vaqueros is the Zips/CSU Invitational, a co-hosted tournament by Akron and Cleveland State in Ohio. UTRGV will play three matches Sept. 6-7 against Wyoming, Cleveland State and Akron.
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