(Rio Grande, Texas – Sept. 30, 2023) - Despite battling in a tough opening set, the Utah Tech volleyball team dropped its WAC road opener in straight sets at UT Rio Grande Valley on Saturday afternoon at UTRGV Fieldhouse.

The Trailblazers (4-9/0-3 WAC), who battled to within set point in the opening set, saw UTRGV (9-8/3-1 WAC) take the opening set, 26-24 before taking the next two sets, 25-19, 25-11.

Led by 11 kills from Hannah Howard, the Trailblazers also got a team-leading 13 digs from Mya Laufiso, 17 assists from Taela Laufiso and a pair of solo blocks from Elise Porter.

With the Vaqueros jumping out to a 15-5 lead in the opening set, the Blazers roared back with a 6-0 run to cut UTRGV's lead to four after a kill by Porter. The Vaqueros continued to lead at 19-16 before Utah Tech went on a 3-0 run to knot the set at 19. After a kill from Howard tied the set at 22, the Blazers got a kill from Howard and a service ace from Taela Laufiso to get on the brink of set point before UTRGV reeled off four straight points for the come-from-behind win.

After blocks by Porter and Howard cut the Blazers' lead to one at 9-8 in the second set, the Vaqueros extended their lead to 19-13 before Utah Tech ripped off a 6-2 run to trim the home team's lead to 21-19 after a kill from Howard. Unfortunately, that was as close as the Trailblazers would get as the Vaqueros closed out the set with four straight points for the 25-19 win.

It was all UTRGV in the third set taking a 13-5 lead and extended it to as many as 15 on a pair of occasions winning the set by 14 to hand the Blazers their third straight sweep.

The Trailblazers were able to tie the Vaqueros in service aces (5-5), but it was all UTRGV who led in kills (44-28), blocks (8-2), assists (40-27) & digs (49-39).

Utah Tech returns home to host Southern Utah (4-9/0-3 WAC) on Monday at 6 p.m. at Burns Arena.