Three teams, one goal

The start of a new school year means the beginning of the fall sports, volleyball, women’s and men’s soccer. The teams share two common goals, to defend their home turf and be named Western Athletic Conference champions.

In 2017, the UTRGV Women’s Volleyball Team had a stellar season with an overall record of 17-12 (10-4 WAC record). The biggest accomplishment for the Vaqueras was finishing second in the WAC tournament.

The team is looking for redemption after the loss against California State University in the WAC tournament finals. Head Coach Todd Lowery said his team learned and grew from the loss against CSU. The loss fueled the team with hunger for the 2018 season.

“I think that loss sticks in our girls’ minds for sure,” Lowery said. “With a very senior heavy team and everything, I think this season really started that night last in November. The girls worked really hard in spring and they really got focused together and really set goals to get back to that WAC championship match and leave it all on the court that night.”

This year, the team is composed of 17 players, 15 of whom are returning players. The Vaqueras welcomed two freshmen to the team, right side hitter Pamela Moreira of Franca, São Paulo, Brazil, and setter Carter Helmcamp of McAllen. Leading the team is senior middle blocker Alexandra Ecker, who was named captain for the season.

“We have pretty much the same team as last year,” said Ecker, a biology major. “We only have a few new girls, so we’re just adding them into our same system. We built last season and during the spring, so we’re just excited to have them here and get them into the gym with us and start developing that championship team.”

The season has just begun and the Vaqueras are already making a name for themselves. The team finished second in the WAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Some individual players also making a big impact are senior outside hitter Ragni Steen Knudsen, who was selected as the WAC Preseason Player of the Year and  Preseason All-WAC selection. Joining Knudsen in the Preseason All-WAC award are Ecker and right side hitter Barbara Silva.

The Vaqueras began their journey last Friday as they faced Louisiana Tech University, Prairie View A&M University and Houston Baptist University at the preseason HBU tournament in Houston. Conference games are set to begin at 9 p.m. on Sept. 20 against CSU Bakersfield in Bakersfield, Calif. 

Sharing the same vision as the volleyball team is the women’s soccer team. Last season, the Vaqueras finished in third place with an overall record of 9-8-3 and WAC record of 4-2-1. The team qualified to the WAC tournament but, unfortunately, lost in the quarterfinals to Grand Canyon University with a score of 2-1 in overtime.

“We want to win as many games as possible and, of course, we want to compete for a WAC championship,” Head Coach Glad Bugariu said. “I think that’s the goal every year. You know, I think we’re within striking distance. Last year we were and, hopefully, we can replicate that this year.”

Hoping to lead the team of 28 to the WAC championship game are captains Tuva Rolstad Nilsen and Diandra Aliaga. Since there are nine freshmen entering the team, Aliaga said her primary focus is to instill leadership skills in them.

“I just hope that we can instill accountability and leadership and that others rise to the occasion,” said Aliaga, a senior kinesiology major. “I don’t want it to just be me. I want a team full of leaders. I think that’s when we’ll have our best team.”

Among the nine freshmen are six women who come from Texas, three of whom are Rio Grande Valley natives. Forward Emily Zapata is from Laredo; defender Baylee Endsley, from Kyle; and goalkeeper Mariah Scott, San Antonio. From the Valley are defender Kryssie Rivera of Brownsville, midfielder Kaitie Watson of Sharyland and forward Isabella Marinero of Mission. The remaining three are midfielder Emma Lien Hapnes from Oslo, Norway; midfielder Elina Seppala of Vaajakoski, Finland; and midfielder Jordyn Castillo of Cape Girardeau, Mo.

The Vaqueras officially began their preseason by hosting the UTRGV Tournament on Aug. 12. The tournament included Texas Southern University, Oral Roberts University and Portland State University. UTRGV defeated Texas Southern University 4-1 and fell to Oral Roberts University 1-0, earning the Vaqueras a second-place finish.

The first conference game will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 20 in Edinburg against Texas Lutheran University.

In the 2017 season, the men’s soccer team finished fifth in the WAC. The overall record for the team was 7-7-3 and 4-4-2 in WAC. This season, the men are aiming to finish at a lower spot and qualify for the WAC tournament. In order to do this, the men looked for reinforcements and signed 12 new athletes.

 Head Coach Paul Leese said that when he looked for players, his main focus was to find players to fill in positions and help out the team.

“Typically, we’re always looking for the areas where we’re missing players because of graduation or we need a little bit of extra depth and for us it was very clear that we did not have enough fire power up top, so our forwards were the biggest area.”

In the list of newcomers are forward William Akio of Nairobi, Kenya; midfielder Jaime Arcila of Bucaramenga, Colombia; defender Matt Beaulaurier of Spokane, Wash.; forward Rooby Dalusma of Atlanta, Ga.; goalkeeper Trevor Schneider of Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada; and forwards Kyle Edwards and Azinho Solomon of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Texas natives are midfielder Noe Ochoa of Houston, defender Luis Rubio from Edinburg, midfielder Julian Espinoza of Brownsville, forward Jonathan Gutierrez of La Joya and midfielder Damian Magallan Jr. of Valley View.

Leading the newcomers and the rest of the team are captains Michael Faber, a junior defender, and Isidro Martinez, a senior forward midfielder. Faber said he is welcoming the newcomers by working on different tactics on and off the field.

“Off the field, we have various lectures on attacking principals, defensive principals, shape, the way we play, team culture, and so they are getting in a lot of information,” said Faber, a management major. “We’re mixing teams up so the new guys are playing with the older guys and then off the field, I spend almost my whole day off the field and in the field with the team and so the bond is getting made.”

Coach Leese wants to break the stereotype this year and elevate his team to a third- or second-place finish in WAC play. Leese said he hopes the new players bring in the missing piece of previous seasons.

“I think the missing piece that prevented us from maybe jumping up a few more positions was our inability to score goals,” Leese said. “We didn’t have the right forwards. We were playing with midfielders in our forward positions, unfortunately. I think that was a block that, hopefully, this year we can get over. Certainly, our forwards now have the ability to score goals with the new players that we brought in.”

Besides winning conference, Martinez said one of the team’s main focus is to defend its home turf.

“Just to finish up in the top three spots in WAC and win as many games at home because it’s our home,” he said.

The Vaqueros began defending their home turf on Aug. 19, as they took on St. Edward’s University to a scoreless draw. WAC play will begin at 7 p.m. Sept. 22 in Edinburg against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

With one goal in mind, all of the teams are ready to begin their journey toward WAC championships.