Box Score
AUSTIN, Texas - The best season in NCAA Division I program history for UT Rio Grande Valley came to an end with a 3-0 loss (25-14, 25-16, 25-17) at No. 4 seed Texas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday at Gregory Gym. The Vaqueros finish the season with a 21-14 record, the most wins and the highest winning percentage (.600) in NCAA DI program history.
Ragni Steen Knudsen led UTRGV with eight kills and nine digs. Bojana Mitrovic finished with seven kills and three blocks. Senior Alisha Watson recorded five kills to finish her career with 1,101 kills, the fifth-highest total in NCAA DI program history.
Texas jumped out to a 5-1 first set lead, but a block by Mitrovic and Joanna Boronczyk helped UTRGV score three-straight to pull within one, 5-4. UTRGV tied the set at 7-7 on a Watson kill before Texas responded by scoring the next six points as part of an 11-2 run to go up 18-9 and push the set out of reach.
Texas jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the second set. The teams traded points from there, with UTRGV pulling within six points eight times, including at 12-18 on a Knudsen kill. Texas responded by scoring the next three to go up 21-12 en route to taking a 2-0 lead in the match.
Texas took a 14-7 lead in the third set, but UTRGV scored three in a row to pull within four. UTRGV again pulled within four (12-16) on a block by Mitrovic and Boronczyk and again at 14-18 on an ace by Dubravka Vukoja, but that's as close as UTRGV got in the loss.