{"id":430371,"date":"2026-09-09T06:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T06:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/430371\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T06:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T06:18:20","slug":"utrgv-volleyball-sweeps-texas-southern-in-home-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/430371\/","title":{"rendered":"UTRGV Volleyball Sweeps Texas Southern in Home Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


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RIO GRANDE VALLEY\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros volleyball team opened their home slate Tuesday with a strong 3-0 (25-18, 28-26, 25-18) victory in front of a 1,208 fans at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n

The Vaqueros (2-3) leaned on right side\u00a0Ema Petkovic<\/a>\u00a0who delivered with her first-career double-double with 17 kills and a career-high 14 digs. UTRGV limited mistakes and outlasted the Tigers (0-7) who could only manage a .129 hitting percentage on the evening.<\/p>\n

Petkovic led the Vaqueros in both kills and digs while junior outside hitter\u00a0Martina Franco<\/a>\u00a0tallied her fifth game this season with at least 10 kills after securing her 10th\u00a0of the night late in the third set. Middle blocker\u00a0Jasmyn Walker<\/a>\u00a0only had eight attacks but finished with seven kills to give her a hitting percentage of .875 on the night. Setter\u00a0Lana Rnjak<\/a>\u00a0collected her fourth game of at least 30 assists with 37. Freshman\u00a0Dunja Stankovic<\/a>\u00a0had double-digit digs for the Vaqueros with 10 on the evening.<\/p>\n

Lacey Kusnier\u00a0led the Tigers with nine kills in the match with\u00a0Ava Ray\u00a0setting her up for most of the night and finishing with 13 assists.\u00a0Kadence Davison\u00a0and\u00a0Lauanna Pino\u00a0tied for the team lead in digs with seven each.<\/p>\n

The Vaqueros fell behind by two early until a service ace by libero\u00a0Celianiz Cabranes<\/a>\u00a0kicked off a run of four points capped by a kill from Petkovic.\u00a0UTRGV scored 10 of the next 13 points to take a 13-7 lead and force a timeout from Texas Southern.<\/p>\n

The Vaqueros began to pull away, capitalizing on mistakes by the Tigers and extending the lead to 18-10. Petkovic ended a late run by TSU to give UTRGV a 20-14 lead. Middle blocker and Harlingen High alum\u00a0Julianna Bryant<\/a>\u00a0took over late in the set, earning three of the last five points as the Vaqueros took set one, 25-18.<\/p>\n

The two sides traded points before a service ace off the net by\u00a0Lauren Battle\u00a0gave the Tigers some early momentum, forcing a UTRGV timeout down 9-6. Coming out of the timeout, Petkovic put the Vaqueros back on track before a solo block by Bryant tied the game at 11-11.<\/p>\n

A 7-1 run capped by another kill by Bryant put UTRGV up 16-12 before the Tigers climbed back with a run of their own that tied the game at 17-17.<\/p>\n

Following service errors by both sides, Petkovic blasted an ace by the Tigers’ defense to bring the score to 21-19. UTRGV turned to Petkovic who smacked a ball straight through the middle of the court to make it 23-21. Three straight kills by the Tigers put the Vaqueros on the ropes, but TSU gifted two points back to UTRGV as the set would require some late heroics with the score sitting at 26-26. Tijerina would be the hero of set two with a service ace followed by a huge dig to keep the last point alive that was finished by Petkovic for a 28-26 set win.<\/p>\n

The third set started with three runs of three points with Franco capping the 6-3 run for UTRGV with a pair of kills. Petkovic secured her first-career double-double of the season with a dig early in the third as the Vaqueros pushed ahead 9-5. Rnjak picked up her 30th\u00a0assist of the match as UTRGV maintained control into the media timeout, 15-10.<\/p>\n

Out of the timeout, Petkovic and Bryant kept the momentum going before a kill by Walker put the Vaqueros up 20-17. Walker finished off two more points as UTRGV went on to win the set 25-18 and clinch the sweep.<\/p>\n

The Vaqueros will be back in action Thursday and Friday at the Red Raider Classic in Lubbock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read Full Article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" RIO GRANDE VALLEY\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros volleyball team opened their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-430371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}