COMMERCE, Texas - The second match of the quarterfinal day at the 2025 Southland Conference Tournament saw No. 2-seeded UTRGV sweep away No. 7 seed HCU. The Vaqueros earn a date with No. 6 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the semifinals Saturday at 2:00 PM. UTRGV got stellar performances from 2025 Setter of the Year Isabella Costantini and First Team All-Conference outside hitter Dimitra Nanou. Both Costantini and Nanou registered double-doubles in the three-set match.
 
In set one the Vaqueros built an early 8-2 lead thanks to a 5-0 run featuring a pair of kills from Valentina Sarti Cipriani. Several rallies later, an ace by Isa Bento pushed the UTRGV set lead to 11-4 and forced the Huskies first time out. Costantini scored on a setter dump out of the timeout and UTRGV capitalized on HCU hitting errors to increase their lead to 16-7. The Huskies Taylor Bonner-Williams got her third kill in the opening frame to cut into the Vaqueros lead, but in the end HCU only got six kills in the first set and UTRGV raced out to a 25-15 first set win. The Vaqueros got balanced contributions from Martina Franco and Nanou, who each got four kills, and three a piece from Sarti Cipriani and middle blocker Aaliyah Snead.  Costantini had 14 assists in the first set alone.
 
To start Set 2, HCU inserted outside hitter Cassidy Drapela into the lineup and she got off to a strong start knocking down two early kills. But Costantini got another setter kill, Bonner-Williams errored for HCU and then Julianna Bryant got a kill to add to a mini-run by the Vaqueros that stretched the 2^nd set lead out to 11-6. Huskies’ right side hitter Joya Euhus along with Drapela tried to bring HCU back as each scored pairs of kills to get HCU close at 14-12. From that point on the second set was a side-out game and the teams traded service holds of only one or two points until HCU was forced into their final timeout of the set with UTRGV holding a 21-18 lead. The Vaqueros finished out the set and took a 2-0 lead in the match by posting  a 25-22 set win. HCU had only hit .094 in the first set and was only able to post .056 in the second.
 
Set 3 started with two straight HCU points, but then Nanou scored, Snead and Franco teamed up on a block, Drapela errored and Sarti Cipriani nailed two kills to lead UTRGV on a 5-1 run and build an early 8-4 lead in the set. Nanou later added two more kills to her tally to obtain her double-double with score 12-6 in the third. The Vaqueros added to their lead before the media time out at 15-10 and from that point on it was all UTRGV to close it out. Late in the set the Vaqueros went on a 6-0 run with Sarti Cipriani contributing on two blocks at the net. The set finished with UTRGV running away by a final set score of 25-13.
 
In addition to the double-doubles by Costantini and Nanou, UTRGV got 8 kills from Martina Franco and Sarti Cipriani. Libero Celianiz Cabranes scooped 14 digs and Snead and Sarti Cipriani led with five blocks. HCU got seven kills from each of Bonner-Williams and Euhus. Chloe Richards was pressed into setting duties with two of the Huskies’ regular quarterbacks sidelined with injuries. Richards dished out 24 assists and libero Bianca Byerly played well on the back row and tallied 14 digs.