EDINBURG — It has been a standout year and illustrious career for UTRGV outside hitter Sarah Cruz, filled with big moments and memories.
Now, the 6-foot-2 native of Olomouc, Czech Republic, is looking to end her career with more of both as UTRGV hosts the first two rounds of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship at the UTRGV Fieldhouse today and Saturday.
The Vaqueros (25-6) will face the Houston Christian Huskies (23-10) in the first round at 7 p.m. today. Prior to that match, South Dakota State (17-14) and Louisiana (15-12) will face off in the 4 p.m. match, with the winners moving on to the second round at 2 pm. Saturday.
UTRGV competed in the NIVC last season at Arizona and previously participated in the postseason in 2016 with an NCAA Tournament match at Texas.
The 2022 NIVC features 32 teams. The first two rounds are scheduled for Dec. 1-4, Round 3 for Dec. 6-8, the semifinals Dec. 8-11, and the championship match will be played Dec. 12 or 13.
Previous champions of the current NIVC are UNLV (2021), Georgia Tech (2019), Iowa State (2018) and Ole Miss (2017).
In 106 career matches, Cruz has accumulated 1,398 kills, 117 service aces, 774 digs, 213 blocks and accounted for 1,642 points. She ranks third in program history for career kills — needing eight to move to second — and fourth in service aces.
“We’ve had some really, really special outside hitters in this program, and she’s one of them,” UTRGV head coach Todd Lowery said. “She’ll be in the same conversation as those players, like Ragni Steen Knudsen, Bojana Mitrovic, Barbara Silva, that really carried a huge load for us.”
Cruz is capping her career with her best season. She’s one of two players on the squad to have played in all 118 sets this season and has started all 31 matches, leading the team with 508 kills and 37 aces while contributing 267 digs and 63 blocks. She’s the single-season program record holder in kills and can build on that during the NIVC.
She is the 2022 Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, an All-WAC first-team honoree and a three-time winner of the WAC Offensive Player of the Week award. She was the most valuable player at Louisiana’s Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic and made the all-tournament team at the UTRGV Tournament and Texas Tech’s Red Raider Classic.
It’s a much different Cruz than the one who showed up in the United States as an 18-year-old girl starting her collegiate career at NAIA’s Lindsey Wilson College in Kentucky.
“Y’all have so many different options for food here in the United States,” said Cruz, admitting the birria tacos have found a soft spot in her heart, and on her taste buds (but it doesn’t beat out her mom’s Cuban fare). “I gained a lot of weight my freshman year.”
That supposed weight gain, however, didn’t slow her down even a step as a freshman. In fact, it may have all transferred to that powerful right arm of hers as she got stronger and wiser each year as opponents focused much of their attention on Cruz, doing what they could to get her out of systems as often as possible. It hasn’t worked often, however, during her five collegiate playing years.
Like her time at UTRGV, the accolades came pouring in at the Kentucky school. She earned NAIA first-team All-American, American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American, AVCA-NAIA Freshman of the Year, Mid-South Conference Co-Player of the Year and MSC Freshman of the Year honors. She transferred to UTRGV in Jan. 2019.
“It has been awesome to get all that recognition, but I play a team sport so I don’t think about it at that level,” said Cruz, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis during her freshman year at Lindsey Wilson. “For us, it’s more a group thing and a team thing. I’ve been working hard and doing the best for my team, that’s what matters.
“It’s my last time. I try to enjoy every single practice, every single moment. You never know when it will be over, so I’m enjoying it all, one game at a time.”