Scorpions wins RRAC crown in sweep
The No. 9 University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College captured the Red River Athletic Conference women’s volleyball championship with a convincing 3-0 victory over Wiley College on Saturday at the Sid Richardson Center.
After the 25-15, 25-17, 25-17 victory, the Scorpions (31-1) advance to the NAIA national women’s volleyball championships.
UTB-TSC will find out for certain late Sunday if it will receive a bye from the opening round and advance directly to games between Dec. 1 through 5 at the site of the finals in Sioux City, Iowa. With a No. 9 national ranking and two more wins this week, the Scorpions have done their jobs.
Wiley College finished its season 20-5, with three of the losses to UTB-TSC.
The Scorpions did not put up monster numbers against the Wildcats. The match was intense, and Wiley’s back row defended tougher against the Scorpions than other teams in the RRAC.
"We made a lot of errors in the match, but give credit to Wiley," Scorpions coach Todd Lowery said. "They forced us into a lot of errors and played good defense against us, but we played even better defense against them."
UTB-TSC had a conference-low .216 hitting percentage against Wiley, with 39 kills on 102 attacks with 17 errors. However, the Wildcats hit a negative .010, with 26 kills and 27 errors on 104 attacks.
Arlene Ferreira led the Scorpions with 10 kills, and Erica Chimak and Val Caboclo had eight each and Judith Boel seven. Setter Daianarah Bracero added six kills on surprise dinks over the net.
Bracero had 29 assists, and Ferreira led the defense with nine digs. Boel had eight and Chimak seven.
Ferreira was named the tournament’s most valuable player, with Bracero and Caboclo also landing spots on the all-tournament team.
The conference championship made it a sweep of three championships for Scorpions fall sports. The UTB-TSC men’s and women’s soccer teams claimed RRAC titles last week in Fort Worth.
