EDINBURG, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word volleyball team makes the trip south this weekend for the UT Rio Grande Valley Tournament that will be played at the UTRGV Fieldhouse on Friday and Saturday.

The Cardinals (0-3) will play the host on Friday at 11 a.m. and then they play San Jose State on Saturday at 11 a.m. and Southern on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. 

UIW opened the season with three straight losses at the Pepperdine Asics Tournament.  Sophomore middle blocker Sarea Alexander (San Antonio/MacArthur HS) was the top player for the team with two outstanding matches.  She is hitting .395 with 2.20 kills per set while adding seven blocks in three matches.  Freshman Autumn Lockley (Leander/Leander HS) led the team with 27 kills and she had the second most digs, 26.  Senior Taylor McClelland (Cypress/Cypress Ranch HS) was the top setter for the team averaging 5.67 assists per set and she moved into ninth in school history with 903 career assists.

The Cardinals match with UTRGV will be shown live online at www.wacsports.com/live.  The Vaqueros (2-2) are led by Bojana Mitrovic who is averaging 4.21 kills and 2.36 digs per set.  Dubravka Vukoja is averaging 7.23 assists per set while Haley Durham chips in with 0.93 blocks per set.
    
The Spartans (1-3) have a balanced attack with four players averaging over 2.00 kills per set.  Breann Robinson directs the offense with 8.53 assists per set while Yavianliz Rosado picks up 3.19 digs per set.

The Jaguars (0-3) lost all three of their matches at the Southern Miss Tournament to open the season.  As a team they have a -.044 attack percentage.  Diamond Williams has been the team's best player with 5.83 digs per set.

The Cardinals are 3-4 all-time against the Vaqueros when they were known at UT-Pan American.  This is the program's first ever match against both San Jose State and Southern.   
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