For volleyball, women’s and men’s soccer, the season is halfway through, and each team has already posted significant accomplishments.
On Sept. 8, the UTRGV Women’s Volleyball Team pulled off a historic upset against No. 15 Baylor University in a 3-2 win.
Three days later, captain and senior middle blocker Alexandra Ecker broke the career blocks record in a 3-0 sweep against Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. Ecker ended the game with 343 blocks. As of Oct. 10, Ecker had 369 career blocks.
UTRGV was not done breaking records. In a game against Texas Tech University, the Vaqueras filled the Fieldhouse with a record home crowd of 2,176.
In that same game, senior outside hitter Ragni Steen Knudsen became the ninth member of the UTRGV 1,000 kills club with 1,011 kills.
On Sept. 29, the Vaqueras reached a season-high 12 aces to defeat Seattle University 3-0. The 12 aces are recorded as the highest total for UTRGV.
The last time the volleyball program reached 12 aces was back in October 2014, when legacy institution University of Texas Pan-American played Texas Southern University.
Knudsen moved into sixth place on the UTRGV NCAA Division I all-time kills list with 1,124 kills after the Vaqueras defeated Chicago State University 3-0, which earned her WAC Volleyball Offensive Athlete of the Week for the third time this season.
Also receiving WAC honors was senior libero Giselle Zayas, who was named WAC Volleyball Defensive Athlete of the Week on Sept. 10.
As of last Wednesday, the Vaqueras were on a five-game winning streak and in first place in the Western Athletic Conference.
The Women’s Soccer Team is on the same path to success. On Aug. 30, the team upset the University of Miami 2-1 in overtime. The game ended 1-1 in regulation, but freshman forward Emily Zapata scored the game-winning goal for the Vaqueras.
Zapata has been a key component of the team as she has scored 10 goals this season as of Oct. 10, making her the team’s lead scorer and tying her for the lead of most goals scored in the WAC with the University of Missouri-Kansas City forward Kelsey Mothershead.
Five of the 10 goals scored by Zapata have been game-winning, which sets a new program record for most game-winning goals in a season.
Topdrawersoccer.com, a website dedicated to providing college and club scores, noticed her success on the field and ranked her 91 among the top 100 freshmen. She has also earned the WAC Women’s Soccer Offensive Athlete of the Week.
Also earning the WAC Women’s Soccer Defensive Players of the Week were junior goalie Kinga Szemik, who was selected three times, and freshman goalie Maile Lunardi, who was selected once.
Szemik was also called back to Poland to play with her national team. She made her debut with a 3-0 win over Estonia.
On Oct. 4, the team learned that it had earned the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award for achieving a team grade-point average of 3.0 or higher during the 2017-2018 academic year.
The Vaqueras recorded a 3.54 GPA, which is the third-highest mark among women’s soccer teams in the state.
On the men’s side, the Vaqueros finished second at the Rio Grande Valley Invitational hosted by UTRGV at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
Junior forwards William Akio and Kyle Edwards, along with senior forward/midfielder Isidro Martinez, were selected for the RGV Invitational All-Tournament Team. Antone Jarvis was selected as the Defensive MVP of the tournament.
After that, the Vaqueros achieved a five-game winning streak by defeating Northern Illinois University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of Central Arkansas, Jacksonville University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
On Sept. 25, the Vaqueros learned they earned regional rankings and climbed in the Ratings Percentage Index.
UTRGV was ranked No. 10 in the United Soccer Coaches Far West Region and had an RPI of 32 in the first NCAA RPI release of the season. At the end of last season, the Vaqueros were ranked 157 in the RP.
The men also earned the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Awards for achieving a team grade-point average of 3.0 or higher during the 2017-2018 academic year.
UTRGV finished with a 3.50 GPA and was one of 14 teams to have a GPA of 3.50 or higher.
A new record has been set by the men’s team as it has won five straight home matches (5-1-0), breaking the NCAA Division I program record for most home wins, which was set back in 1991 and 1989 (4-1-0).
Akio was selected as the WAC Men’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week.
All three teams are looking to end the season with even more record breaking, game winning and history-making events.
