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With a regular-season championship to defend and coming off a program record 27 victories, it may seem that Todd Lowery and the UTRGV volleyball team has found the right formula for success.
They may have, but they want more. That means tweaking the equation to get the Vaqueros to where they want, which includes a WAC Tournament victory and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
UTRGV kicks off the 2023 season today through Sunday with three matches beginning with host Montana at 8 p.m. today. Saturday the Vaqueros play No. 17 BYU at 1 p.m. and Sunday they face No. 5 Pitt at 11a.m. All three games can be seen on ESPN+
With 19 players on the roster, Lowery has the largest number of players he has ever carried on a team. Now he will be looking for the right competition to go with his game plan this year that preaches defense first, a slight change in last year’s strike first, and make it count, mentality.
“We want to be able to extend rallies and points and not make our hitters feel like they have to score every single time they swing,” said Lowery, who has guided UTRGV since 2015 and has a 132-104 record. His overall coaching record through 18 seasons is 548-140. “This is probably the best defensive team we’ve ever had. That’s kind of what we’ve been focused on and that’s how we recruited. That’s what we wanted to focus on during the recruiting process.”
Freshman Isa Bento of Brazil, junior Kiaraliz Perez of Puerto Rico and graduate student Madi Spencer have been impressing the Vaqueros coaching staff, and challenging the offense.
“ From a-defensive standpoint we are really talented in the libero spot with them competing for those spots,” Lowery said. “They are some of the better liberos I’ve had in my career. It’s hard to score against them to the offense has to get better.”
Gone is WAC Player of the Year Sarah Cruz, but the Vaqueros return WAC Setter of the Year, and preseason WAC setter of the year junior Luanna Emiliano, who joins senior middle blocker Luisa Silva Do Santos on the preseason All-WAC Team. Those two and hitter Perris Key are the team’s tri-captains.
“There are a lot of new faces but those captains did a good job in July. By the time we came in, there was already a set culture,” Lowery said. “Luanna’s hand was bothering her last year and held her back but now she’s showing what she’s capable of, Luisa is better than she’s ever bee and we worked with Perris whose shoulder was bothering her during the second half last year ad she looks great.”
Not all of the positions are set in stone as of now, but one thing the roster depth will do is give Lowery and the Vaqueros multiple options, depending on their needs at the time.
“There are some positions that are shoring up but I think the outside spots, the pin-hitters, are very much up in the air,” Lowery said. “We have a lot of depth so it depends on what we need. We have some kids who give us more defense, some who give more offense. It comes down to what do we need that day to allow us to be successful.”
