UTRGV off to best DI start with win
BY HENRY MILLER
STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — UTRGV has a roster stacked with big hitters.
It’s sophomore setter Luanna Emiliano’s job to identify who’s hot and get the ball to them.
Emiliano did exactly that late in the third set and Luisa Dos Santos and Claudia Lupescu delivered, and the Vaqueros won their eighth straight match 25-17, 25-23, 25-22 over Montana on Friday night during the first day of the UTRGV Tournament at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
“Everybody has a little different game plan for us, and they are going to have to pick and choose their poison,” UTRGV head coach Todd Lowery said. “If we pass it well we can figure out those things a little faster. Luanna does such an incredible job on controlling our offense. We have an impressive crop of hitters but to have someone to orchestrate it and figure it out, her ability then to get the ball to the person no matter what the pass looks like or the dig looks like, it’s impressive.”
The win spoiled the homecoming of Jackie Howell, the former Mission Veterans standout player, who had dozens of loud and supportive family and fans in attendance to watch her and the Griz play. Howell finished the night with a pair of kills, one assist and nine digs.
Meanwhile, a slide play from Emiliano to Santos turned momentum during a third set in which Montana grabbed a 10-6 lead and held it until UTRGV climbed back to tie it at 20, 21 and 22. The slide where she registered her seventh kill of the match and tied the game at 20, however, was the turning point.
“I needed to step up and help my teammates right now, because we are struggling a little bit from the beginning of the third set,” Santos said. “So I talked to Luanna, and we have a good connection and have been working together and knew it was going to work out.
“(After that) I was waiting for the balls. I was feeling excited now that the ball was coming to me.”
Sarah Cruz led the Vaqueros with 13 kills and Claudia Lupescu added 12. Emiliano added 34 assists.
“When I am in the game we don’t push a lot of slides, but me and Luanna work on that a lot,” said Santos, a 6-foot junior from Brazil. “But we saw their blockers would stay in the front with me or Sarah, and Luanna was, like, ‘Push the slide right now, I think it’s gonna work.’ That worked.”
The Vaqueros rolled through the first set before Montana settled down to grid out the next two sets.
“I feel we let off on the service pressure in Sets 2 and 3, and we didn’t pass or play with the intensity level that we are capable of,” Lowery said. “It’s still nice to get a 3-0 win, and get out of here and regroup and do it again (this) morning.”
UTRGV’s 8-1 record is the best start in program history since joining NCAA Division I in 1985. UTRGV continues play in its home tournament at 11 a.m. today against Prairie View A&M before a second match against Montana at 6:30 p.m.
