Today the UTRGV Volleyball Team lost to Stephen F. Austin University in a crowd-pumping game.
With this loss, the Vaqueras’ overall record is 19-5 and 8-1 in the Western Athletic Conference. The Ladyjacks’ overall record is 20-3 and 8-2 in WAC.
The first set of the game was back and forth until SFA surged ahead at the end and scored 20-25 bringing the match to 1-0.
“You know, I don’t think it’s necessarily a volleyball thing that we struggle with,” head coach Todd Lowery said. “I mean, if you watched us tonight, I think we struggled with the mental side of the game. I mean, we did some really out of character things. We set balls to people that we haven’t been sending out to and those things were out of character as far as those go.”
In the second set of the match, the Vaqueras made a comeback controlling the set and beating the Ladyjacks 25-15 tying the match 1-1.
“I think we just got a pass with a little bit more energy,” outside hitter Sarah Cruz said. “Just stay positive on the court, because sometimes we just don’t convert balls, and we don’t score after. I mean, we get set and then we get blocked. And then we get blocked three times. We made mistakes … and then we just got low on the energy and positivity. So, I think we should just stay positive and think about the next game and focus on that.”
The third set of the match left the crowd on the edge of their seats. UTRGV lost momentum from the second set but surged ahead toward the end. Ultimately, SFA ended the set scoring 23-25 bringing the match to 2-1.
“I think they did pretty much what we expected them to do to be honest with you,” Lowery said. “I mean, [SFA] didn’t make a lot of mistakes. And I mean, we did, you know. We hit a lot of balls out of bounds that we haven’t been. I don’t think we served it very well, either. You know, big moments, seven service errors, and three or four of those were big moments and really cost us either momentum or even cost the set. I think that that was key. We didn’t handle the things that we were supposed to handle very well.”
After a hard fought game, the Ladyjacks ended the Vaqueras undefeated WAC title 18-25 bringing the match 3-1.
SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys commended the Vaqueras on their game.
“So they’re one of the few teams that we see that doesn’t mind rallying,” Humphreys said. “A lot of teams will get frustrated with that and it really benefits us, but we knew they were a similar team in that regard tonight, so it was gonna come down to execution at key times. It was gonna come down to certain paths as volleyball always does, you know, who serves and passes at the highest level.”
The UTRGV Volleyball Team’s next game is against the University of Texas at Arlington 2 p.m. Saturday at the Fieldhouse on the Edinburg campus. For more information, visit goutrgv.com.
