Todd Lowery’s experience as an NAIA coach is coming back to help him.
After more than 425 days without competing against another team, the UTRGV volleyball team returns to the floor today with a non-conference doubleheader at the Dugan Wellness Center in Corpus Christi. The Vaqueros will play UTSA at 1:30 p.m. before concluding the night with a 6:30 p.m. match against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
Lowery, who was hired in January 2015 to take over the UTRGV program, spent 12 seasons in the NAIA ranks, guiding National American University and the University of Texas-Brownsville to four national championships and a combined career record of 416-36 (.920%). This season, due to COVID-19, the WAC has scheduled its conference games for back-back-back matches Mondays and Tuesdays.
Lowery has some familiarity with a schedule like that. While the team will have more consecutive days to recuperate, conditioning will play a critical role during those second-day matches.
“We’ve talked about it a lot and we’ve tried to train to be ready for that,” Lowery said. “We reverted back to some of the training we used a lot back in the NAIA days when playing four matches on a weekend was normal.
“We’ve talked about how the best volleyball team may not the best team on the second night. It’s going to be the team that can physically recover and mentally recover and go back and do the same things they did the first night on a high level.”
The Vaqueros return nine players and five starters from last year’s 14-17 squad. Sarah Cruz, a senior 6-foot-2 outside hitter, and fellow classmate and middle blocker Veronika Jandova, also 6-2, are expected to carry a heavy load along the front row this season.
“Sarah Cruz continues to grow as a volleyball player as she learns how to compete at this level,” Lowery said. “Veronika has shown steady growth in that middle position and we expect her to take that next step and be one of the best middles in the conference.”
The Vaqueros were picked to finish third this season by WAC coaches, behind top pick New Mexico State and then Grand Canyon. Lowery said he’s hoping this year’s team will add some “grittiness and not go away.”
“Last season we were in a lot of matches but couldn’t close the deal,” Lowery said. “We lost four or five in the fifth set by two or three points. We were probably 15 points away from having five more wins and being a second or third seed in the conference. I want to see us compete and focus on being a more greedy team and controlling passes and make teams work to go out and beat us this year.”
Another player the Vaqueros will lean on as a leader will be outside hitter Samaret Caraballo (5-foot-10). The senior played libero last year and in the offseason Lowery said he challenged her to be the “best player she could be every single day.”
“Samaret was always ultra talented but getting her excited every day was a big challenge for us and it would set the tone for us some days. When your most talented player doesn’t bring it every day, and she was one of our most talented, it’s tough. We challenged her as we went into fall camp to be the best in the gym every day. She has stepped up into a leadership role and embraced the challenge and it’s fun to watch that growth. She made herself better and others in the gym as well.”
UTRGV opens its home schedule Feb. 8-9 against New Mexico State. Monday’s match begins at 6 p.m. and the Tuesday tilt starts at noon. The Vaqueros have six home matches scheduled for the season. They will play California Baptist on March 1-2 and Utah Valley on March 15-16. The WAC Tournament will be held April 2-3 at New Mexico State.
