UTSA volleyball defeated Florida Atlantic University 3-0 on Sunday at the Convocation Center.
The Roadrunners (9-18, 3-11 AAC) defense had 12 blocks and 36 digs which overwhelmed the Owls (15-11, 7-7 AAC) who had 107 attack attempts and 38 kills. UTSA closed out its home season with a win on senior day. The ‘Runners took the game in three sets 25-19, 25-21, 25-19.
“I think winning for our seniors is huge, they’ve done so much for this program,” junior opposite hitter Mia Soerensen said of their senior day win. “We all played for them today and kinda showed up. We need this win a lot, I think we are going to keep it up next weekend.”
Florida Atlantic went on a 4-1 run at the start of the set. Freshman outside hitter Ally Tribe served for the second time. The Owls received the ball and set outside hitter Valeria Rosado up for the attack.
Soerensen and senior outside hitter Faye Wilbricht spotted the play and roofed Florida Atlantic to tie the score 4-4. The ‘Runners went on two long point runs of 5-0 and finished the set with a 6-point lead.
“We’ve been trusting our training recently and trusting the process,” Tribe said. “We are working our butts off in the gym. We are doing all the right things. We have been trying to stay as consistent as possible, and that’s what we did today.”
Soerensen and senior middle blocker Alicia Coppedge built on their previous momentum and stuffed the Owls five times in the second set. Florida Atlantic went on a 4-0 run when outside hitter Romina Cornelio was up to serve for the third time.
Junior outside hitter Caroline Krueger secured the ball and sent it to freshmen setter Morgen Durgens, who set the ball to Tribe. Florida Atlantic read the play and went for the block, but Tribe swung through a kill and tied the score 11-11.
UTSA set the standard for the third set by holding the lead over the Owls.
“We want to get two road wins really bad,” Tribe said. “I mean, beating FAU was so huge and USF was so huge, so we have it in us to compete with these big teams and we have it in us to compete at away games.”
The ‘Runners had 40 kills; Tribe led with 11 while Soerensen and Coppedge had nine. The Roadrunners had low attack and service errors with 12 and four, respectively. On the other hand, Florida Atlantic had 22 attack errors and six service errors.
“I think continuing to make serving adjustments, and what we’re doing serving wise and the girls just being really aggressive,” coach Carol Price-Torok said about the last two away games. “Just continuing to play free; right now we’re playing for ourselves and to continue to get better at this program and what we are building.”
UTSA will play the University of Tulsa at 6 p.m. Friday at Donald W. Reynolds Center.
