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For Immediate
Release: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 LADY BRONCS WIN EIGHTH STRAIGHT, BEAT SWTSU FOR FIRST TIME HOUSTON, TX-The University of Texas-Pan American's volleyball team is one victory away from tying their longest winning streak ever. The Lady Broncs defeated Southwest Texas State, 31-29, 30-21 and 30-27 at the UTPA Fieldhouse Tuesday, extending their winning streak to eight consecutive matches. Junior outside hitter Winker Cruz (Harlingen, TX/Harlingen South HS), who has led Texas-Pan American in hitting during their current winning streak, led the Lady Broncs again offensively. Cruz hit .317 with 12 kills. Freshman middle blocker Danielle Holthe (Covina, CA/Bishop Amat Memorial HS) added 10 kills, junior outside hitter Jaclyn Muszynski (Walnut, CA/Walnut HS) had 15 digs, and Holthe, Muszynski and sophomore outside hitter Cathi Netemeyer (Los Fresnos, CA/Los Fresnos HS/Iowa) added four blocks each as UT Pan American outblocked the Bobcats, 9-4 and outhit them, .252-.083. UTPA's freshman setter, Katie Burke, (Georgetown, TX/Georgetown HS) added 44 assists. Tiffany Weidner led SWTSU with 13 kills and hit .348. "I'm very proud of the way we played," said UTPA Head Coach Dave Thorn. "Southwest Texas is a very well-coached team and a very good defensive team, and we needed to play well to beat them. We came out a bit tentative, and we made some mistakes that allowed Southwest Texas to take control at the beginning of the first game. Once we stopped making errors, we were able to take control ourselves, and we did a better job on our side of the net. We had about the same number of kills, with half as many errors, so that shows that we played well." The victory was the first ever in nine tries for UTPA against Southwest Texas State. "Southwest Texas is a team that always does well in their conference, and is a well-respected program, and it's big to beat them for the first time ever," said Thorn. "We started off 1-10, and now we're back to .500 at 12-12, so it means a lot that we've played as well as we have." The Lady Broncs improved to 12-12 with the victory, while Southwest Texas dropped to 7-16. UTPA will visit Texas A&M-International Saturday. VB-31-03 102902 |