The Miners posted their third-best attacking performance of the season in Friday night’s sweep over Louisiana Tech, holding the Bulldogs to below 20 points in each set, 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 25-19).
Via UTEP Athletics
UTEP improves to 16-6 overall and 8-3 in Conference USA play, while LA Tech drops to 6-15 (1-8 CUSA).
“Good team win, as all our skills were on high alert tonight,” head coach Ben Wallis said. “We were efficient in a lot of ways. We defended well and had a good serving effort. We dug it well at the same time, which is good. We were a complete volleyball team today. Now we got to move on and continue to be a clean, physical team tomorrow.”
Three Miners paced the squad with eight kills each while hitting above .400: Danika Washington (.636), Torrance Lovesee (.438), and Alianza Darley (.429). Kalia Kohler (21) and Mattie Gantt (13) combined for 83 percent of the teams’ assists. Washington and Alyssa Sianez recorded match-highs for the defense with five blocks and eight digs, respectively. Sianez dealt three aces, and Lovesee recorded 12.5 points derived from eight kills, two aces, and four blocks.
UTEP’s all-around performance held the statistical advantage in kills (45-23), hitting percentage (.402–.075), aces (8-3) and blocks (10-4).
SET ONE | UTEP only trailed once in the whole match, which came from LA Tech taking the opening point. Kills by Darley triggered two LA Tech timeouts as the Miners led 9-5 and 15-8. Marian Ovalle knocked in a couple of kills before kick-starting a 7:1 run to win the set, 25-13. UTEP posted four aces, eight blocks, and 13 kills while hitting .357.
SET TWO | The Miners took advantage of back-to-back Tech errors that opened the second set to drive up a 7-0 lead that included a Tech timeout in the midst. UTEP was first to 10 points after Darley slammed down two kills and Sianez tabbed her second ace, 10-3. Darley once again forced a Tech timeout and landed another coming out of the break, 19-8. Both teams went 1-for-1 as UTEP wrapped up the set on pure kills to duplicate the opening set score of 25-13. UTEP shredded 15 kills while hitting .478.
SET THREE | LA Tech put up more of a fight in the final set putting an extra six points on the board. UTEP came up 6-2 with two kills by Washington, two blocks by Weaver, and another ace by Sianez. The Miners kept the four-point lead with back-to-back kills by Weaver and Ovalle, 11-7. Tech had a small 3:0 spurt to cut the deficit to one point, 11-10, before UTEP’s Washington put up two kills and a block heading into the media timeout, 15-10. After the break, Tech put up six points to UTEP’s five in an attempt to keep the Miners within arm’s reach. Tech took both timeouts within three serves as UTEP led, 22-18. The Miners gave up one last point to Tech before Sakira LaCour and Lovesee secured the sweep with a kill and ace, 25-19.
UP NEXT
UTEP will wrap up the weekend with LA Tech, Saturday, Oct. 21, at noon inside Memorial Gym.
