MIAMI – UTEP volleyball (7-7, 1-0 Conference USA) picked up a road win to begin C-USA play with a victory over FIU (3-11, 0-1 C-USA) in five sets, 3-2 (22-25, 25-14, 21-25, 25-17, 15-12) Friday evening at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center.
Two Miners hit double-digit kills, Torrance Lovesee (16) and Serena Patterson (11). Hande Yetis (26) and Mattie Gantt (22) combined to put up 48 assists for the team and Hula Crisostomo tallied 14 digs.
UTEP's all-around performance held the statistical advantage in kills (61-51), blocks (8-7), hitting percentage (.270 - .264), and service aces (14-1).
"I'm really glad my team was able to pull out a win here in Miami," head coach Ben Wallis said. "We had to deal with a lot coming here across two time zones and having the schedules mixed up prior to the match and that can sometimes throw young team for a loop, but we locked back in and found ways to just grind out a win even though we didn't play very well. FIU really wanted to win the game being at home and starting off the conference season and while the record doesn't show how tough they are they definitely were trying to snatch a victory away from us in this first conference match. Their middles are both a problem and they gave us some trouble at times, and I think they snuck some lucky kills actually through our block and hit people in the head which sometimes is just being unlucky, but we stayed tough and found ways to grind out a victory.
"We struggled at times following the game plan but once we locked back in and listened a little better and executed things that were I think simple from the get-go we were able to snag a victory on the road which is important to start off 1-0 in CUSA," Wallis said.
SET ONE | With 14 tied scores, both teams went back-and-forth to kick off the opening set. A FIU error tied the match at 16 even. The Panthers drove a 6-1 scoring run only allowing a single kill for the Miners to take the lead, 22-17. UTEP pushed its own 5-1 run but back-to-back errors by the Miners closed out the first set in favor of the Panthers, 25-22.
SET TWO | UTEP gained full control of the second set forcing two FIU timeouts. The Miners gained a five-point lead forcing FIU to take its first timeout at 12-7 after two big kills by Torrance Lovesee. The Miners pulled out a set win off a 6-0 run to tie up the match, 25-14.
SET THREE | After only five tied scores early on in the third set, FIU forced two UTEP timeouts. A service error by FIU tied up the set, 11-11, but proceeded to pull ahead with a 5-1 run, 16-12. The Miners' late 3-0 rally at set point was a little too late as FIU captured the set win and a 2-1 advantage in the match, 25-21.
SET FOUR | The Miners posted two big rallies forcing FIU timeouts in the fourth set. A kill by Alianza Darley tied the set at 9-9 and the Miners continued the momentum to pull ahead 20-15. UTEP capped the set with a 5-0 run to force a fifth set, 25-17.
SET FIVE | UTEP only gave FIU two tying opportunities in the final set. UTEP extended the lead by five after a FIU timeout, 9-4. FIU was down by a single point, but the Miners pulled away with a 3-0 run, 13-9. Lovesee put one last kill down and an attack error from FIU sealed the match win for the Miners, 15-12.
Final Thoughts from Coach Wallis
"I thought Serena (Patterson) was really locked in from the get-go and she really helped us emotionally get through the tough stuff, and while Torrance (Lovesee) checked in with 14 kills and led us in points, we needed everybody to get us through this. They were hitting balls around our block a lot because we are a tough blocking team, and we didn't really lock in defensively until the middle of the second set and their quirkiness as attackers kind of bothered us and balls were rattling and squirting through our blocks which was frustrating to all our blockers at times. I just reminded them to do their job and block mistakes and we'll dig around it and once we settled in there, we really didn't have much of a problem defending them but in two of the five sets they hit for big numbers and that's why their percentage settling for a pretty high number which I don't like for the match. We're very young in a lot of places and it would have been really easy for us again to show our youth in the 5th set and while we didn't have great numbers, we just found a way to get the victory which is what we've been struggling with against good teams recently. So, I'm proud of our group for grinding it out and finding a way to get the victory on the road amid a little bit of adversity."
UP NEXT
Miners are back in action as they travel to Boca Raton, Fla. to take on Florida Atlantic on Sunday (Sep. 25).
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.
