HARRISONBURG, Va. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros volleyball team won six consecutive sets to close out the Erie Insurance Invitational at the JMU Convention Center, recording its second consecutive sweep Sunday with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-14) win over the Delaware State (DSU) Hornets.
Freshman outside hitter
Dimitra Nanou led UTRGV (5-6) with a career-high tying 13 kills on .400 hitting with seven digs. Junior setter
Isabella Costantini had another well-rounded effort, dishing out 31 assists while recording four kills, five digs and two blocks. Senior right side
Valentina Sarti Cipriani and junior middle blocker
Aaliyah Snead had six and five blocks, respectively, while contributing seven kills each. Junior libero
Celianiz Cabranes finished with 12 digs and two assists.
Emma Patmon led Delaware State (4-10) with 12 kills on .429 hitting.
Gerren Tomlin had 11 digs and
Kelsie Dawson recorded four blocks.
The first set was tight throughout with the Vaqueros holding a slight edge. Junior defensive specialist
Isa Bento served back-to-back aces, then senior setter/defensive specialist and Sharyland Pioneer alum
Natalie Reyes added another to put UTRGV up 16-13. The Hornets scored four unanswered and claimed a one-point lead, then the teams took turns scoring to a 22-22 tie. Nanou took over down the stretch, scoring UTRGV's last three points for the 25-23 set win. She finished the frame with seven kills on an errorless .636 hitting.
UTRGV was quick to take control of the second set, opening the frame with a 5-0 run that saw four different Vaqueros record kills. Costantini read the Hornets defense well, dropping timely second-touch kills to get the opponent out of sorts. DSU committed three consecutive errors and the Vaqueros took full advantage of the momentum swing, scoring seven unanswered for a 20-10 lead after back-to-back kills from Cipriani
. The Hornets made a small late push, but Nanou came up big again with the last two kills to secure the 25-17 set win.
The Vaqueros continued to roll in Set 3. Snead and Cipriani teamed up for three blocks early in the set and were swinging efficiently to have UTRGV leading 12-6. Bryant and Costantini tabbed a pair of blocks to extend the advantage to 10 points as the Vaqueros recorded five blocks in the final frame, forcing the Hornets to a -.103 hitting percentage. Delaware State committed seven attack errors with only four kills in the third set. Freshman defensive specialist and Brownsville St. Joseph alum
Carmina Tijerina served the first ace of her collegiate career and Nanou went 3-for-3 scoring set-winning kills to claim the sweep with a 25-14 win.
The Vaqueros open Southland Conference play Wednesday at 12 p.m. in a School Day match against Lamar at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
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