UTSA volleyball closed out its spring campaign against The University of Texas at Austin with a 3-0 loss on Friday at the Convocation Center.
Similar to last April, the Roadrunners played the Longhorns in sell-out fashion where fans witnessed an energized game played on both sides. Through three sets, the two teams not only traded points but traded leads as well, tying up the match 19 times before the ‘Runners fell 26-24, 25-22, 25-20. Defensive errors got the better of UTSA as Texas began to take control offensively in the second set.
“I like the response back from them when Texas was going on two, three point runs,” coach Carol Price-Torok said. “I love the positive touches, but they run a way faster tempo than we run in our gym, so it took us a minute to figure that out. Then we got caught up by them just staying fast, but it’s really great to see that they’re responding in point production from the service lines ourselves.”
The tides began to turn when senior middle blocker Alicia Coppedge tipped the ball to gain a 2-point lead midway through the second set, but that was the last time the ‘Runners led the game during that set. Though, due to 11 kills, seven of those coming from junior opposite hitter Mia Soerensen, UTSA tied up the match two additional times after initially dropping their lead. The Roadrunners lost the set by three points due to the Longhorns finding success placing the ball in the center back zone; a tactic they continued to carry out in the third set.
UTSA suffered its biggest setback of the match after allowing the Longhorns to score four points unanswered, but through kills from the front line — senior outside hitter Caroline Krueger, Coppedge and sophomore outside hitter Isabella Arroyave — the ‘Runners shrunk the deficit down to two.
“Isabella did a really great job on the outside, and Krueger got going at the end as she continued to play, same with Mia,” Price-Torok said. “In the second set, [Mia] really picked it up and started producing for us. The biggest thing was that we couldn’t get the ball to the middle as much as we wanted to.”
Defensively, the Roadrunners struggled to pick up tips and attacks on the cusp of the attack zone and back zone. Because of this, they recorded two kills during their third set despite narrowly trailing by five points as the Longhorns closed the match.
Tied at 25-25 in the first set, Texas took the 26th point when the ball nicked sophomore middle blocker Caroline Tredwell on its way out of bounds. In an offensive effort to stop the Longhorns from gaining a 2-point lead, they needed to win the first set. Krueger hit her ball too far to the left and placed it inches outside the court as Texas took set one.
“We’ve been working with new personnel, and we have been working through the spring on ball placement, so it’s really fun to see that come to fruition,” Price-Torok said. “I think these games give us data about what we’re doing well and what they want to concentrate on in the summer. It’s been really encouraging for the girls to play in these last two games. To play against really physical, powerful teams that made deep runs in the NCAA tournament, it’s encouraging because we know we can play at that level.”
UTSA’s volleyball season will begin when the fall semester commences.
