By Kyle Koso
In one of the southern-most locations in the country, the arrow continues to point up for the UT-Rio Grande Valley volleyball squad. The Vaqueros blitzed through and blasted away at their 2022 schedule, going 13-1 in the Western Athletic Conference to earn the regular season title after being picked to finish seventh in the preseason polling. UTRGV stumbled in the WAC tournament and didn’t get a berth in the NCAA Tournament, but their sterling RPI number (57) and 25-6 overall record made them ideal candidates to play in the 2022 National Invitational Volleyball Championship. UTRGV did decide to jump into the NIVC again (they went 0-1 in the event last season) and will host one of eight four-team pods, taking on Houston Christian (23-10) on Friday night. The other game in Edinburg, TX., will feature South Dakota State (17-14) vs. Louisiana (15-12) – the two winners will then play Saturday to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. Todd Lowery knew his roster needed a day or two to work past that WAC tourney loss, a startling 3-0 defeat in their gym against Utah Valley, a team they’d beaten on the road just two weeks before. Pretty quickly, the benefits of extending the season were easy to embrace. “We had conversations early on with them – after our experience in the NIVC last year, we thought it was a super positive thing and helped our growth going into this year,” said Lowery, head coach since 2015 and who steered UTRGV to its first-ever NCAA tourney bid in 2016. “As a staff we were ready to do it again if we had that opportunity. The day after (the Utah Valley loss), the girls were certainly a little somber and felt like they should have performed better than they did. The best thing about the NIVC, it’s another opportunity to perform in the postseason at the level they are capable of. “We gave them a couple days off, then we came back in over the weekend and started getting some touches. We have something to prepare for, and the fact we get to host puts a bit of excitement in.” On the court, UTRGV features a couple of players with Texas-sized resumes in outside hitter Sarah Cruz and setter Luanna Emiliano, both first-team all-WAC selections this year. Cruz, a grad student and native of the Czech Republic, has 508 kills on the season, which ranks 11th in NCAA D-I, leads the team in aces and is third in digs. She’s at the receiving end of Emiliano’s consistently excellent and clever touches from the setter spot – the Brazilian native has 1,231 assists (No. 15 in NCAA D-I) and as a sophomore is already widely respected for the quality of her play. “Everything we do starts with Luanna. She’s an amazing setter, and it’s a dream for a player like that to come in as a freshman, to show the growth she did and then to have the type of season she just had,” Lowery said. “We knew she was a special talent; she makes every hitter better, she makes every pass better because she has such ability with her hands. “Sarah had an amazing year and carried a big load for us early on, really went out and won some matches for us on her own. She took it upon her shoulders as some of the other kids developed and got time to establish a connection with our setter. Those things happen because Sarah’s had this kind of season early on when we were searching for offense.” Junior Luisa Silva Dos Santos is second in kills (271); sophomores Cladia Lupescu (214 kills) and Margherita Giani (213) come in next. Junior libero Regina Tijerina leads in digs (447) and defensively UTRGV has held the opposition to a .186 hitting percentage. The lineup maybe took a while to flex its full muscle, but it really didn’t come at the expense of the win-loss totals. The Vaqueros lost in five sets to UNLV (an NCAA qualifier) to start the season, then dashed off 11 victories before a three-match skid ending with a three-set loss to UTEP. That kind of streak just ahead of conference play could have rattled the young-ish roster, but Lowery said the setback provided the clarity that only comes when a team feels disappointment and the subsequent desire to not feel that way anymore. A sweep at New Mexico State (a typical WAC powerhouse) kicked off the league slate, and UTRGV never looked back. Under Lowery’s direction, the Vaqueros are distinctly international in makeup; five Americans and players coming from Brazil (five), Turkey (two), Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Mexico and Romania. Not only that, many started at smaller schools before making the trip to South Texas – Cruz first played at an NAIA program in Kentucky. The challenge of blending personalities and cultures is something the UTRGV coaching staff has come to appreciate. “It’s something we base the program on; it’s been successful for us. We are in a unique geographical location, a bit far from everything,” Lowery said. “We put a lot of time in trying to figure out the kids’ personalities, and I think we recruit a certain type of personality. They need to fit that and our culture as much as they fit on the court. We went back to focusing on that the last two years, not just on what we are missing in the gym. “Leadership, personalities, the blend … like any organization, if you’ve got 15 people who are exactly the same, that’s not versatile enough. College athletics are changing so fast, and at the mid-major level those intangibles play a huge part in a program’s success.” LAST WORD – Lowery on playing in the NIVC: “That opportunity to play in the postseason is invaluable. To help the growth of the younger kids … the more times you play in the conference tournament, the postseason, the more the kids get comfortable, and it’s a huge part of being successful. The teams that are there, well, they’re used to it, and the culture of winning starts to develop at that level. We want to improve on what we did last year in the NIVC, and that will be key for us.” |
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