Nathaniel Puente 
News is supposed to be what’s happening now or what just happened. But let’s step back in the past for a second. If you glance through the UTRGV record book, this one right here, you might notice a theme. There’s not a lot of consistent success in many of our sports teams. For volleyball’s first 30 seasons in NCAA play, they held a winning percentage of .308 and won a grand total of 1 postseason game. Not a great record there. But in 2015, when UTRGV began, Todd Lowrey became head coach and the next five seasons were the most successful this school has ever seen. Conference titles, WAC regular season championships, NCAA tournament appearances. Wild stuff. But when you do this well you’re expected to keep up the success. So even though UTRGV entered this year’s WAC tournament with an overall losing record, there’s no reason the Vaqueros can’t pick up the win for coach Lowrey.
The Valley hosts the WAC tournament. Only problem? It’s in Utah Valley, and UTRGV was set to play the Wolverines in the first round. Coincidentally, The two schools have met every year in WAC tournament since 2015, with UTRGV holding a 4-1 record. You know what that means now though? Nothing. Utah Valley exploded in this one, cruising to a 3-0 sweep win to advance to the next round of the tournament.
UTRGV finishes this season a disappointing (14-17) season, which is still the 10th best season in program history. So, just as the fall sports wrap up, basketball is just getting good. Women’s basketball travelled up to Corpus for the South Texas Showdown.
The Islanders took the lead early here and kept the momentum going. Dalesia Booth got things started with a nice layup. Booth carried the team with 20 points on the night. UTRGV got close in the 2nd period with this Zhane Templeton three but Corpus ran away with the game in the 3rd period and won this one 61-50.
The Vaqueros next four games are at home as they look to better their 2-3 record heading into conference play. Men’s basketball’s next game is tonight against Texas A&M International. It’s been a tough start to the season for UTRGV but a matchup against a Division II school should result in a win. The teams have not met since 2011 but UTRGV holds an undefeated (7-0) mark against the Dustdevils.
Now here’s a sport that not many reporters this side of the 49th parallel will discuss. The 107th Grey Cup took place last night and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won their first Canadian Football League championship since 1990, formerly the longest active streak in the league. The field is way bigger, there’s only three downs, twelve players on both sides. It’s Canada, eh?
Click on the video below to watch the segment.
