Nathaniel Puente 
We are over halfway through the semester and this is where things start to get really intense. To keep the intense spirit alive let’s go head first right into our first highlights. See. Intense.
UTRGV hosted Grand Canyon on Sunday in a conference showdown. Rio Grande vs Real Grand. A couple of shot attempts is all we saw on the night as defense was the story here. If the actual Grand Canyon played in this one, the result would be the same. A 0-0 draw after two halves and a couple overtime periods couldn’t find a winner.
Now let’s move to a team that might score some goals. Women’s soccer is undefeated in WAC play this year. California Baptist? They’re the new kid on the block in the wac so this should be a Vaquero win, right? Well, that’s why they play the game.
UTRGV headed into this game with an undefeated mark against the Lancers, that’s right they’re 1-0. But early on California Baptist did their job to even the series. Karley Weeks and Miranda Hald added goals for the Lancers in the First Half for an early 2-0 lead. Later, Hald would put the icing on the cake with another goal to give her team a 3-0 win.
The weekend wasn’t over there for UTRGV, though. The Vaqueros were still California Dreamin’ as they faced CSU Bakersfield on Sunday. This time around, the UTRGV defense held the opposition out of the net the whole game, while scoring a goal of their own in the Second Half, courtesy of Maya Chitman. The Vaqueros would hold on and extend their WAC record to 3-1-1.
Coming into the weekend, volleyball held a 3-3 conference record and the shades of last year’s WAC regular season champions are beginning to fade. But, a matchup with Chicago State could turn things around. Because hey, they’ve only lost once to CSU in the past 23 years. And that was in 2011, when the name of this school was redacted.
The whole state of Chicago took on UTRGV and would it be enough to take them down? The Vaqueros put away the first two sets fairly easily thanks to Sarah Cruz and Nama trading kills. The 3rd set, was a bit more intense but UTRGV pulled away with a 25-23 win off a Sarah Cruz kill. With the set win, the Vaqueros picked up the 3-0 sweep win.
Kansas City, Missouri hosted the team’s next match as UTRGV faced UMKC. The Roos jumped out to an early 2 set lead thanks to some impressive hitting. The Vaqueros came back in the 3rd set with a dominating set win. Barbara Silva stood out as the offensive force there. But in the 4th set, UMKC broke through with a dominant set win of their own. This one, though, gave them the match.
UTRGV sits with a 4-4 conference record, a rather average mark that leaves them 5th in WAC standings. That’s a bit WAC. But, 8 of their last 10 games are at home so a chance to wrap up the season on a positive note.
Click on the video below to watch the segment.
