SAN ANTONIO — It didn’t take long for the UTSA volleyball team to feed off the energy at the Convocation Center Thursday night. The trio of Dajana Boskovic, Marijeta Runjic and Dempsey Thornton paced the Roadrunners to a four-set victory (30-28, 19-25, 25-21, 25-12) against Houston in their home opener and they snapped a five-match losing skid.
“This was a huge win for us tonight.," head coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff said. "Coming off a five-match losing streak, this gave us the confidence we needed. We had such a great home crowd tonight and we fed off their energy. We gave them something to come back for."
UTSA (3-6) jumped on top early in an opening set featured 16 ties and eight lead changes before the final decision was reached. The Roadrunners hit .184, while the Cougars (6-4) were not far behind with a .146 attack percentage. Junior Kylie Schott secured the back-and-forth battle for UTSA with her only kill of the stanza.
The Roadrunners came up short in the ensuing frame, as they dropped a 25-19 decision, which evened the match heading into intermission. Houston, which led from start to finish, hit .394 and committed only three errors and scored seven of the final nine points.
UTSA reclaimed the advantage in the third set. After each team traded points, the Birds used a 4-1 run to take a 19-15 lead. The Roadrunners scored four of the last half dozen points and a combined block by Megan Slan and Boskovic sealed the win.
The fourth set was the Boskovic and Thornton show. Boskovic hit .700 on the strength of seven of her 15 kills, while Thornton blasted a .385 attack percentage on six winners.
Runjic had a match-high 21 kills and Thornton finished the night with 17 and 10 digs for her second double-double of the season. Meanwhile, Jessica Waldrip registered 46 assists and 11 digs for her fifth double-double and she also racked up four blocks.
Cortney Warren paced Houston with 18 winners and Kadi Kullerkann added 17.
The Roadrunners will host the UTSA Classic the next two days, as they will take on LSU at 6 p.m.on Friday and Baylor at 5 p.m. the following evening.