EDINBURG — UTRGV rallied from being down 18-12 in the second set to tie Stephen F. Austin at 23. Two quick unforced errors, however, abruptly ended that comeback attempt and the visiting Lumberjacks went on to win the set and the match 25-20, 15-25, 25-23, 25-18 Thursday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
UTRGV fell to 8-1 overall, ending its eight-match Western Athletic Conference win streak, and 19-5 overall. SFA improved to 20-3 overall and 8-2 in conference play.
“They did pretty much what we expected them to do,” UTRGV head coach Todd Lowery said. “They didn’t make a lot of mistakes and we did. We hit a lot of balls out of bounds that we haven’t been and I don’t think we served it well in big moments, where it cost us momentum or cost us the set.
“We didn’t handle the things we were supposed to handle very well.”
Sarah Cruz delivered another big night for UTRGV with a match-high 22 kills, nearly half of the team’s 48 total, along with three aces and 11 digs. The next closest offensively was Perris Key with seven kills and Luisa Silva Dos Santos with five. SFA had three hitters with double-digit kills led by Lelan Bradley with 16 on a .353 hitting percentage clip.
“I think we went into the game with a feeling that we were able to win and were going to win, but it just didn’t happen.” Cruz said. “We didn’t convert balls after 20 and sometimes we couldn’t pass, and that caused us lots of problems.
“It was very stressful (being behind a lot) but we were able to catch up, but then just didn’t convert balls and score then.”
The second set was all UTRGV. Tied at 10, the Vaqueros went on a 5-0 run with Cruz serving. She collected one of her aces during that run, and Claudia Lupescu tallied back-to-back kills with sharp cut attacks.
“We played well in Set 2 and it wasn’t even close,” Lowery said. “We handled all the easy balls and didn’t miss a serve. Then the game was really one-sided with us helping them out at big moments that gave them momentum.”
UTRGV led 18-17 in the fourth set on a Santos quick middle attack. After a side out, however, the Lumberjacks closed out the match on a 7-0 run.
“I didn’t think we handled the first touch very well. I don’t think (SFA) hit balls through the floor. Lelan did a good job like she has all year and we knew that, but we didn’t do well against the others.
“They swing hard when they are in system. We didn’t make them pay for all the easy balls that they sent us. We knew they were going to send us easy balls and we didn’t side out when they sent us those easy ones, and that was basically the difference.
Utah Valley’s win over Tarleton puts it in a tie for the conference lead at 8-1. Following SFA is UT Arlington (7-3) in fourth place. UT Arlington and UTRGV play at 2 p.m. Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.