EDINBURG — UTRGV head coach Todd Lowery has said during the season that he wants his team to compete, especially during times when it is down by a few points.
The Vaqueros didn’t do that Thursday.
Grand Canyon University rallied from down two sets to none and earned a reverse sweep with an 18-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-16, 17-15 win over the Vaqueros in an electric and intense WAC matchup at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. The win pushes GCU to 6-1 in the conference, alone in second place. UTRGV watched its four-match and 14-set win streak come to an end, and is now 4-2 in the conference.
Perris Key led the Vaqueros offensively with 20 kills and a team-high four block assists. Claudia Lupescu added 15 kills for UTRGV.
Junior setter Luanna Emiliano was spectacular once again with 50 assists and a match-leading 27 digs. The junior setter, who was last season’s WAC setter of the Year and has been named setter of the week three times this season, was honored before the match for surpassing 3,000 career sets earlier this season. She is second all-time in UTRGV program history.
UTRGV took the 2-0 lead in sets behind consistent serving, a relentless defense and a setter who doesn’t seem to know what’s possible and what’s not. Emiliano not only distributed the ball to the best option for attack after attack, but also made a number of key saves and, during one play in the second set, went up on a tight ball to the net and what looked like a one-handed set coming turned into a simple flip of the wrist back tip that found nothing but the court.
“It was a heck of a volleyball match with some great volleyball being played tonight,” Lowery said. “We played well, especially early. Set 2 is about as good as you can play — they had 17 kills and hit .400 and lost. I’ll take that in every set and take my chances.”
The defense — led by diving, rolling libero Kiaraliz Perez — once again played spectacularly, denying several clean kill attempts by the Lopes and transitioning into a fast offense that led to UTRGV being back on the attack.
Everything changed in the third and fourth sets however, as the Lopes came storming back and the great passing that UTRGV started the match with quickly dissipated.
“They made adjustments, and we didn’t bounce back in Sets 3 and 4, and I thought that we need to learn to compete a little harder when we’re behind by five or six and losing sets,” Lowery said. “Even if we are losing sets we cannot stop competing, but we gave them all sorts of momentum in Sets 3 and 4 and then it carried into Set 5.
GCU led for most of the fifth set and was ahead 13-8 when the Vaqueros made a furious comeback, tying the set at 14 after fighting off three previous match points. The Vaqueros had their own match point at 15-14, but a service error tied the match and GCU held on for the victory.
“Halfway through Set 5 we started to compete again and it got really tight,” Lowery said. “I felt like if we had competed a little harder in Sets 3 and 4, maybe Set 5 starts off a little different and we’re ahead by five instead of behind by five.”
