UTSA Advances to Southland Tournament Championship
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HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The No. 2 seed UTSA defeated the No. 6 seed Lamar in straight sets (26-24, 25-21, 25-23) to advance to the championship match Sunday, in the Southland volleyball tournament in Huntsville, Texas.
UTSA advances to its third Southland tournament title match and first since 2005. The Roadrunners won the tournament in the 2000 season. UTSA will play the winner of match six between the top seed Central Arkansas and the No. 4 seed UT Arlington.
UTSA senior outside hitter Kendra Rowland recorded her second double-double performance of the tournament. A first-team all-conference selection, Rowland led the Roadrunners with a match-high 17 kills and 11 digs. Sophomore setter Kelsey Schwirtlich, also a first-team selection, led UTSA with a match-high 39 assists.
Lamar exits the tournament after a first-round upset over the No. 3 seed Texas State. The Cardinals were led by sophomore middle blocker Jayme Bazile with 26 kills, 11 blocks and a .323 hitting percentage in the first and second round matches. Sophomore setter Alex Morford had 83 assists and sophomore setter Angel Colyar had 37 digs.
The championship match of the Southland tournament will be televised by the Southland Conference Television Network Sunday at 3 p.m., CST. Doug Anderson will handle play-by-play duties. He will be joined on the broadcast by color analyst Jenny McGhee.
All seven matches of the Southland Conference volleyball tournament will be streamed live on SLC NOW, the conference's audio and video streaming platform on Southland.org. All SLC NOW programming is free to anyone who registers on the site.
UTSA Coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff
"The whole year we talked about the climb of advancing to the championship match. Now we are one step away from reaching another of our goals in the NCAA Tournament."
UTSA senior Kendra Rowland
"It's a phenomanal feeling to finally play in the conference title match. Knowing this is the last season for me, turning it on in the conference tournament is definitely important. We found our routine from earlier this season and put it together today."
Lamar Coach Justin Gibert
"We had a great performance in the first round against Texas State which shows our potential for what we can do. We are basically a team of sophomores and I'm very pleased with who we have coming back."