Vaqueras fall to Lopes in close match

The UTRGV Volleyball Team dropped a home match against Grand Canyon University 3-2 (18-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-16, 17-15) during tonight’s “Alumni Night,” bringing its record to 11-9 overall and 5-2 conference.

It was a hard-fought battle during the first set, but ultimately UTRGV gained momentum and beat the Antelopes 25-18.

The pace remained the same throughout the second set as the Vaqueras maintained a short lead on Grand Canyon, achieving a neck-and-neck win 25-23, making the score 2-0.

During the third set, the Vaqueras were trailing behind GCU and ultimately lost 25-17.

The fourth set was a similar story with UTRGV losing 25-16, tying the score 2-2.

The fifth set had the Vaqueras slowly catching up until they tied 14-14, then took the lead with 15-14. But in the end, the Lopes prevailed and won 17-15, taking the match 3-2.

Junior outside hitter Perris Key led the Vaqueras, putting up a career high 20 kills, nine digs and four blocks.

Head coach Todd Lowery said he thought the Vaqueras played well and there were good plays from both sides.

“I thought we played well, especially early,” Lowery said. “Set two was about as good as you can play. … I thought we played really exceptional early on. They made some adjustments and we didn’t bounce back as good in sets three and four, and I thought we need to learn to compete a little harder when we’re behind by five or six.”

Junior middle blocker Margherita Giani contributed 11 kills with .562 on hitting.

Lowery said the Lopes gained momentum from sets three and four and that followed them into the final set.

He said midway into the final set, UTRGV began being more competitive and catching up to GCU.

Junior outside hitter Claudia Lupescu put up 15 kills, five digs with .229 on hitting.

Lowery said no one was playing badly in the team.

“We watch the stats throughout the match and make decisions on that,” he said.  Nobody was playing particularly bad. You look at the numbers at the end of the day, nobody had a particularly bad match.”

Lowery said he thought the players on the court were doing good.

The head coach said they tried to swap in new players to try to jumpstart a comeback.

“We tried to put some kids in to see if they were going to give us spark,” Lowery said. “And we didn’t feel that big spark when we were down. So, we went back to the people that were producing.”

Junior outside hitter Ilana De Assis finished the match with 12 kills, six digs and .171 on hitting.

GCU sophomore outside hitter Tatum Parrott led the Lopes with 26 kills on .308 hitting.

The Vaqueras are set to play another conference home game against California Baptist University at 2 p.m. Saturday in the UTRGV Fieldhouse on the Edinburg campus.