UTSA volleyball opened its spring campaign in sell-out fashion, hosting the reigning NCAA champion Texas Longhorns in an exhibition match on Monday night at the Convocation Center.
With no real implications on final results, the two Texas schools played a full five-set match, despite the Longhorns winning three of the first four sets. The Roadrunners, however, managed to pull off something even last year’s No. 1 ranked Nebraska couldn’t do: win a set against the burnt orange.
In fact, UTSA won two sets.
“Certainly they have the weapons coming back from last year, so I don’t want to take that away from them,” coach Carol Price-Torok said. “They did some really, really great things. They’re really a force to be reckoned with. Offensively, I think once we settled in after the first set and a half, we could play in that space.”
During the third set, the Roadrunners took their first lead of the match at 8-7. After UTSA gained two more points, Texas decided to take its first timeout.
The two teams went back and forth, exchanging kills and tips as they fought to take the set. Between junior opposite hitter Caroline Krueger’s blocks and kills and senior setter Mekaila Aupiu getting under the ball, even diving for it at times, the ‘Runners were able to break free after a match point kill made by Krueger clinched a set win for the team with a final score of 25-23.
“Leaning towards each other, taking a moment and going back to what we know,” Krueger said about how she won the third set. “What we practice in our gym is something that we’ve been really working on and not focusing on other things and what the other team is doing. So just taking a second and breathing, because it was such high intensity and a crazy environment here, I think that really helped us kind of settle in and play our game.”
The Roadrunners bested the Longhorns for the final time of the evening in the fifth frame, closing out the match with a set win and a final score of 15-9.
“Yeah, this was definitely the best team that we played in the spring season,” Aupiu said. “And I think just everyone being able to experience that level of volleyball, it’s just something special. I think it’s just really going to help us in our game.”
UTSA is set to continue its spring campaign against I-35 rival Texas State at 7 p.m. on March 22 back in the Convocation Center.
