COMMERCE, Texas — The No. 2 seeded UTRGV Vaqueros used a balanced and thorough offensive attack to sweep the No. 6-seeded Texas A&M–Corpus Christi Islanders Saturday afternoon. With the semifinal win, UTRGV advances to the tournament championship game against the winner of today’s second semifinal match between No. 4 UIW and No. 1 SFA. The Vaqueros hit .420 in the match as middle blocker Julianna Bryant led the way by hitting .714 while posting 11 kills. Fellow Vaquero middle blocker Aaliyah Snead contributed nine kills as did right side attacker Valentina Sarti Cipriani. Outside hitter Martina Franco whistled her way to eight kills to add to the spread offense. The Islanders hit just .152 in the match and posted only two blocks against the Vaqueros offense compared to seven for UTRGV.
 
The first set featured the Islanders’ attempt to get yesterday’s star Jaeda Rawls-Fletcher involved early. Rawls-Fletcher wasn’t able to terminate and instead the Vaqueros got four kills in their first nine swings to take an early 7-4 lead. A block by Franco then led to a long rally featuring an array of digs by Vaqueros’ libero Celianiz Cabranes leading to Bryant winning a joust which pushed the Vaquero lead to five. At that point, Islanders head coach Steve Greene subbed in Ally Saleh for Rawls-Fletcher.

But Vaquero setter Isabella Costantini continued to spread the offense around as UTRGV extended their set lead to 13-6. Soon after, Franco got her third kill in the set to force the Islanders second and final timeout of the frame. At that point, the Vaqueros had raced out to a seven-point lead and were hitting .417. Out of the timeout, another long rally ensued that saw Cabranes sliding and flying around the floor while digging up ball after ball to keep rallies alive. UTRGV maintained their large lead and got to 20 first before an ace by Islanders’ libero Brooklyn Jaeger followed a Kenna Buchanan kill to close the set score to 23-16. It wasn’t enough as the Vaqueros finished out the set with a 25-17 win while hitting .394 compared to Texas A&M – Corpus Christi struggling to put up consistent offense while hitting only .098.
 
UTRGV started fast again in the second set building an early 4-0 lead. The Islanders struggled to find consistent offense early in the frame as the Vaqueros continued to get multiple hitters involved in building an 8-3 lead. A big solo block by Costantini on a Kenna Buchanan attack stretched the lead all the way out to 12-5 at the halfway point in the set. The media time out came at a score of 15-7 in favor of the Vaqueros and at that point, UTRGV had not made an attack error while hitting .451 in the frame.

Shortly after that brief break, the Islanders made a surge behind two kills from Tatum Mason and one from Kaitlyn Krienke. That cut the lead down to six at 16-10 in favor of UTRGV. Later in the set, a Natalie Reyes kill for UTRGV got the Vaqueros first to twenty and forced an Islander timeout. Texas A&M – Corpus Christi setter Virginia Van der Werff then proceeded to serve up three straight aces squeezed around a Vaquero timeout. That got the Islanders to within four and the momentum began to swing as Mason terminated another kill to bring the Islanders to within three at 20-17. UTRGV fought back and got a kill from Snead and then Snead and Franco teamed up on a block to push the Vaquero lead back out to five. UTRGV was able to finish out the set with a 25-22 win and took a two set to none lead.

Just as they did in the second set, UTRGV started fast in Set 3. They got the first three points of the set and then extended the lead to 6-3 after a long rally went the Vaqueros way after Sarti Cipriani made a foot save at the net to keep the rally alive. The Islanders were not able to consistently pass in the middle of the set and a Snead kill followed by another tandem block with Sarti Cipriani was followed by a Dimitra Nanou kill and the Vaqueros had built a 13-8 lead. Julianna Bryant got her 10^th kill to extend the lead even more to 19-11 and after Bryant added kill #11, Martina Franco’s kill forced a final timeout by Texas A&M – Corpus Christi. A Vaquero ace out of the timeout was the final blow as URTGV went on to win the third set by a score of 25-16 in polishing off the sweep.
 
Along with all the Vaquero offense, Franco and Snead posted four blocks at the net. Costantini dished out 35 assists and scooped seven digs. Kaitlyn Baumann’s seven kills led the Islanders. Krienke, Buchanan and Mason added six. Van der Werff posted 29 assists, and Jaeger led the Islander floor with 12 digs.