EL PASO – The UTEP volleyball team (6-7) closed out non-conference play with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 26-24) sweep over UTRGV (11-4) Monday evening at Memorial Gym.
Sara Pustahija led the squad with a career-high of 16 kills, while Torrance Lovesee followed with two career-highs of 14 kills while hitting .522. Hande Yetis (25) and Mattie Gantt (17) combined to put up 42 assists for the Miners and Hula Crisostomo had a team-high 18 digs.
UTEP held the statistical advantage in kills (52-24), blocks (10-5), and hitting percentage (.345-.097). Both teams recorded three service aces.
"I felt fulfilled in a lot of ways tonight because they just got back to working and grinding and playing with a chip on their shoulder," head coach Ben Wallis said. "We've lost the competitive chip on her shoulder until the night is the first time I've seen my team compete really hard for long stretches. Sarah Cruz (UTRGV) has been hitting well near .300 on the year and she's probably going to be an All-American and she hit .000 tonight and they took it personally. And that's how this young team is going to have to play for the rest of the year; they have to take it personally."
SET ONE | The Miners got off to a hot start to begin the match driving up an 11-3 lead that consisted of seven kills. The Miners kept an open lead keeping a minimum six-point advantage over the Vaqueros. UTRGV's last minute three-point rally at set point, 24-16, was a little too late as Lovesee shut it down to win the set, 25-16. The Miners outhit the Vaqueros .417 - .200.
SET TWO | UTRGV got out to a quick 7-4 lead before the Miners tied it up, 7-7, on a kill by Marian Ovalle. UTEP had a 5-2 scoring run to take the lead, 16-14. The Vaqueros had a 4-0 run of their own to jump ahead by two, 19-17, but the Miners were able to tie up the set twice and produce a 5-1 run to take a 2-0 advantage in the match, 25-22. The Miners outhit the Vaqueros .424 - .286.
SET THREE | The third set consisted of 12 tied scores and five lead changes as the Miners looked to earn a sweep and the Vaqueros pushed to force a fourth set. UTEP led the set 3-1, but UTRGV jumped to take a 7-6 lead. UTRGV whipped out an 8-1 run to put the squad up 17-12, but the Miners answered back with a 10-3 spurt to regain the lead, 22-20. UTEP approached match point on a kill by Pustahija, but two UTEP errors tied up the match for the Vaqueros, 24-24. A kill by Weaver and an error by UTRGV won the match for UTEP, 26-24.
Final Thoughts from Coach Wallis
"We've spent a lot of time lately looking at ourselves in the mirror and talking a lot about things that are missing from this team and it has nothing to do with talent, but we spent a long time this morning reminding them how far this program has come and why they're all here and why we recruited them. And a lot of that was to remind them that the tough schedule we played and the losses that we've incurred have nothing to do with anything more than learning experiences. And I just challenged them emotionally to get back into competing and stop worrying about things that are affecting us point to point to point and worry more about points and bunches and worry more about kicking the butt of the person on the other side of the net. Torrance (Lovesee) and Sara (Pustahija) were just monsters with Darley and Kaya (Weaver) just being up in the air earlier and making it easy for our lefts to get one-on-one kills. And Serena (Patterson) and Marian (Ovalle) did a great job of doing what we needed to do as an offensive threat and slowing down and stopping UTRGV's lefts and they did a great job of that. And so offensively, we won through the middle, on the left, and defensively we stopped them on the right. And Hula (Crisostomo) was great, Pep (Sianez) was awesome in serve receive and Hande (Yetis) and Mattie Gantt both were in big time control of what they're doing. The best setting percentages of the season so far and was just a big-time giant team effort. I love hearing our bench and I'm glad that the message was received that it's 'time to get back to competition'. It's time to get back to measuring yourself against the chick on the other side of the net. And that was a lot of fun to see and watch and I'm looking forward to resting a little bit and getting back in the gym and preparing for our conference play."
UP NEXT
UTEP opens Conference USA play on Friday (Sep. 23) at 5 p.m. at FIU.
For complete coverage of UTEP Women's Volleyball, be sure to follow the Miners on social media at @utepvb (Instagram) @UTEPVolleyball (Facebook) and @UTEPVB (Twitter) or visit the official home of UTEP Athletics at UTEPMiners.com.
