The UTRGV Women’s Volleyball Team fell 3-1 tonight against Texas Tech University at the UTRGV Tournament in front of a record crowd of 2,176.
Senior Ragni Steen Knudsen became a member of the UTRGV 1,000-kills club. Knudsen posted a match high of 19 kills, which helped her achieve a ninth-place rank in the club. The outside hitter ended the game with 13 digs and 1,011 career kills.
Other players who contributed to the team’s performance included junior outside hitter Barbara Silva, who posted 12 kills and seven digs. Antonela Jularic, a senior outside hitter, finished with 11 kills and 22 digs and senior setter Dubravka Vukoja tallied 50 assists.
The first set of the night remained close for both teams. The biggest lead for UTRGV was by two points, compared with the biggest lead for Texas Tech, which was six points. The Vaqueras and Red Raiders remained tied until the 17-17 mark, when Texas Tech took the lead to give them a first set victory of 25-19.
In the second set of the match, UTRGV immediately took a 4-1 lead and maintained it until Texas Tech bounced back and took the lead. The Vaqueras came back and tied 14-14. And from that moment on, UTRGV took the reins of the set and sealed it with a 25-20 victory.
The biggest lead of the night came from the Red Raiders during the third set of the night. Texas Tech was now leading 20-12 over the Vaqueras. But, UTRGV was not ready to close the set, as the team made a quick comeback but was unable to take the victory. In the end, the Red Raiders took the third set victory, 25-23.
For the fourth and final set of the match, the Vaqueras trailed the Red Raiders 23-12. Texas Tech scored the remaining two points to the end the game in a 25-17 score.
Head Coach Todd Lowery said the loss had to do with the execution of plays.
“We know we just didn’t execute at key moments,” Lowery said. “You know, I thought we had a big moment at the end of set three, that we had a good swing. We played great defense, we just didn’t execute and really when we broke down and they got away from us, it was just on serve-receive.
“When we passed well, we scored a lot of points and then when we didn’t pass well, they were able to dig some balls and get some blocks and kind of get ahead of us a little bit.”
Earlier today, UTRGV swept Texas Southern University 3-0. After tonight’s performance, the Vaqueras are now 1-1 at the UTRGV Tournament and hold an overall record of 8-5.
The team will close the tournament at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against Houston Baptist University in the UTRGV Fieldhouse and will prepare to play their first WAC game of the season at 9 p.m. Thursday against California State University in Bakersfield, Calif.
