UTRGV women’s volleyball (0-6, 0-4) six-game losing streak continues as they fall, 0-3 (19-25, 14-25, 20-25) to defending WAC champions New Mexico State (4-0, 4-0) earlier today at the Fieldhouse.
In the first set, the Vaquero and the Aggies were in a back and forth affair as both teams were tied 14-14. New Mexico State was eventually able to break away on an 11-5 run that was capped by a Shaney Libscomb kill to end the set.
Libscomb finished the game with six kills, two block assists and five digs in three sets.
The second set was more of the same from the Aggies as they jumped out to a 10-8 lead. They dominated the rest of the set as Katie Birtcil, Libscomb, Savannah Davison, Carly Aigner-Swesey, Linday Blakey and Victoria Barrett all scored kills in route to a 25-14 set two victory.
The 11-point set defeat tied a season-high for the Vaqueros as they also previously lost 25-14 in set three in their Feb. 2 matchup versus new WAC opponent Dixie State in 0-3 loss.
UTRGV fought hard in the third set as they kept it close 18-15 headed into the final stretch but came up short 25-20 as the Aggies earned the victory on a Sara Cruz attacking error.
In three sets, the preseason All-WAC team selection Cruz recorded a team-high eight kills to go along with six digs.
New Mexico State preseason All-WAC selection Davison was all over the court and accounted for a team-highs in kills, 11, and digs, eight, in three sets.
In a postgame news conference via Zoom, UTRGV Head Coach Todd Lowery explains that he wants his team to compete despite the adversity they’ve faced with multiple injuries to key players.
“Of course, frustration is going to mount up when you don’t win games, but I think this team is looking bigger picture,” Lowery said. “We’re trying not to tie how they feel to the wins or losses, we’re trying to tie it to are we playing better today than yesterday.”
Lowery additionally pointed out that he wants to see key players bring more on-the-court energy in their upcoming games.
“Our go-tos have to step up and be better about controlling their emotions and their energy and that’s going to let the role players step up around them,” he said. “That’s the life of being the star on the team, the go-to on the team. There’s good things to them and bad things to them. You’re going to get the ball in your hand a lot, but you also have to take the responsibility if you want to be that person.”
The next matchup for UTRGV will be 6 p.m. Feb. 16 at home against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the South Texas Showdown.
The Islanders defeated the Vaquero in their earlier season matchup 3-0 at the Dugan Wellness Center in Corpus Christi and Lowery said the key victory in the rematch hinges on how the team serves.
“We got to serve it a whole lot better, we let their libero’s play a lot. In that match we didn’t serve to the right people and that’s something we’ve been working on and hopefully, it gets better.”
You can watch the match live on the WAC Digital Network at wacdigitalnetwork.com.
Twitter: @Radio_Rubio
