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HOUSTON -- The Rice Owls answered a first-set UTSA volleyball win with three consecutive to post a four-set (25-21, 15-25, 21-25, 18-25) win over the Roadrunners in an early season battle of Conference USA unbeaten teams, on Friday night.
UTSA (10-5, 2-1 Conference USA) won the first set before falling behind in the second after Rice (11-4, 2-0 C-USA) earned an early lead. The Owls were able to fight off a third-set charge from UTSA to hand the Runners their first conference loss of the year, snapping a three-game winning streak.
UTSA got double-figure kills from junior Kara Teal and freshman Hannah Lopez, who each charted 10 terminations. Senior Amanda Gonzales earned her third double-double of the year with 23 assists and 17 digs. Sophomore Hannah Froeschl had seven kills with Emily Ramirez owning seven digs and freshman Mia Perales sporting 10 assists and five digs. Freshman Kirby smith had nine kills and 10 digs and senior Shelby Williams led the team with 22 digs. Teal added four blocks at the net.
UTSA will return to action on Sunday, traveling to face UTEP (3-11, 0-2 C-USA) at 1 p.m. CT in El Paso.
The match started with a pair of UTSA points, including a kill from Froeschl to get the match rolling. Rice responded with the next three points for its first lead but an ace from Gonzales and a kill from Teal spurred a 3-0 response for a 6-3 lead. Rice's 3-0 run evened it back at six before UTSA burst out on a 5-1 run to take a 12-8 lead, getting kills from Froeschl, McCulloch and Kenedi Rutherford. The Runners built an 18-13 lead after a Lopez kill, reached 20 after a Froeschl termination and earned set point after a smash from Teal. Teal finished the set win with her seventh kill. Froeschl's efficiency stood out in the first, with four terminations in five swings.
The Owls spurted out of the gate with the first two points, building leads of 6-3, 10-5 and 18-8 to open the second set. UTSA was able to notch points to get into double digits behind kills from Lopez and McCulloch and a 3-0 run forced a timeout from the Owls at set point, 24-15, before finishing it 25-15.
The squads traded points to open the third set, with it tied at three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine. Rice used a 4-0 run to take a 14-10 lead it held until a late-set rally that evened the match at 18-18. The Owls were able to take seven of the next 10 points to earn the advantage win.
The fourth set saw Rice build an early lead with four of the first five points and own a 10-3 lead after a UTSA timeout. The Runners fought back to down 10-8 but Rice notched nine of the next 12 points for a 17-12 lead. Back-to-back kills from Lopez spurred a run to get within 17-13. Rice then scored six of the next seven points to take a 23-14 lead. A 4-0 run from UTSA, including an ace from Lopez and a kill from McCulloch forced a Rice timeout at 23-18. The owls were able to earn the next two points for the 25-18 win.
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