The reigning Western Athletic Conference tournament champions are out to defend their crown in 2017. With a four-game conference winning streak and seven-game win streak overall, the program’s longest in over 14 years, the Vaqueros (10-7, 4-0) are in prime position to contend for the WAC regular season championship, as well.
UTRGV is playing its best ball at home with wins over last year’s regular season champ New Mexico State University in a five-set comeback thriller, and sweeps of four other opponents, including two against conference foes, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Chicago State University.
“Playing at home really helped us build team chemistry that we have right now, and having the crowd help us go through those rough moments that we had throughout some games,” said senior co-captain Bojana Mitrovic. “I think it also helped us a lot, because we had a lot of practice hours that we didn’t have on the road for the first month, so that helped us focus and overall improve our game.”
The recent home success has been sparked by both veterans and newcomers to the UTRGV Volleyball Team.
Preseason All-WAC selections Mitrovic, a right side hitter, and junior outside hitter Ragni Steen Knudsen have combined for 10 double-doubles through 17 games, while sophomore outside hitter Barbara Silva and junior middle blocker Alexandra Ecker are currently third and fourth in kills on the year.
The new additions and underclassmen seeing significant time on the court are freshman setter Debora Nazario, freshman middle blocker Veronika Jandova and junior college transfer and libero Gysell Zayas.
Zayas, a San Antonio native who played at Tyler Junior College last season, has been solid on the court in her first year at UTRGV. She joins her former O’Connor High School teammate and UTRGV co-captain Ecker, who said it’s cool to see Gysell transform into the player that she is now. The libero set single-game career highs in digs and assists with 27 and nine in the win over NMSU.
“It all goes down to team, I can’t do anything without them,” Zayas said. “I feel their energy has been contagious, especially Bojana. It gets me fired up, it’s like a domino effect, so I get affected, then everyone gets affected, and I want the energy to be up no matter what.”
UTRGV Head Coach Todd Lowery credited the homestand for allowing the team to build chemistry. Lowery believes his team is rounding into form as the returners and newcomers are creating a solid rapport on the court.
“We got a lot of new faces that are on the court a lot and it takes time,” he said. “I think they’re starting to settle in now and what to expect from each other; returners figuring out what their role is and how do they make us better.”
While the team has been cooking in its backyard, they have struggled in true road games this year with a 1-4 record and 3-3 when playing at neutral sites.
The first WAC road trip has been a hurdle that has proven to be a tough one for UTRGV over the last two seasons. In 2016, the team dropped two of three matches on its first conference road trip, while the year before, UTRGV was swept by NMSU in the road opener.
Lowery has seen his team improve every day, but in order to reach its fullest potential, he feels UTRGV must perform on the road and get some conference wins away from the Fieldhouse. He said the team’s close road losses haven’t come by being beaten physically, but mentally.
“That’s something we’re talking about on a daily basis, is how do we be mentally better on the road and it’s tough,” Lowery said. “This is a tough travel conference and I think you see the teams that rise to the top over the course of conference play are the teams that figure out how to win on the road. We haven’t been able to step into that role and that’s one of our goals coming into this season, how do we get it done on the road.”
Mitrovic said the team has been determined to break the curse of losing the first weekend of WAC play, and they did just that as UTRGV won its first conference road game over Utah Valley University 3-1 (24-26, 25-21, 25-12, 25-21) last Thursday to extend its winning streak to seven.
Now, the Vaqueros will be looking to bring the energy as they are back in the comfort of their own home and preparing to host Grand Canyon University at 7 p.m. Thursday and California State University, Bakersfield at noon Saturday in an effort to extend the six-game home winning streak in the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
