College volleyball: No. 22 Rice outlasts UTEP in five-set thriller
The opportunity was right in front of the UTEP volleyball team.
The Miners are so very close to the summit of Conference USA, a place they've been headed to since Ben Wallis took over the program four seasons ago, and Saturday against No. 22 Rice at Memorial Gym, they took their swing.
They came up two points short in a 23-25, 20-25, 25-15, 25-20, 16-14 Rice victory that lasted two hours and 45 minutes and gave UTEP a good look at the path forward.
What they said
"I told my team all week this would be a measuring stick to see where we were," coach Ben Wallis said. "Unfortunately right now on Oct. 8, we're two points worse than Rice. That's what it comes down to, they are just a little bit better than we are in the execution point of the long rally, the transition stuff. We dug it well enough in that fifth set, we just didn't take the big swings at the top of the block to get the plays we needed."
UTEP, which fell to 4-1 in C-USA, will have more shots at a Rice team that moved to 15-1 with the victory and there was plenty to encourage the Miners. Their two leading hitters in this game were freshmen Torrance Lovesee and Sara Pustahija, who each had 19 kills.
"We had such big expectations for ourselves, considering they are 11th RPI, 22nd in the country, they are a very good team," Lovesee said. "Just by that score, it proves to us that we can be a really good team, we just have that much little bit more to keep going to drive towards to beat that team next time."
How it happened
UTEP, which won the first two sets of the match, led 9-6 in the fifth set and seemed on the verge of taking down C-USA's perennial powerhouse. Rice, though, showed why it is the measuring stick, battling back with the next four points to take its first match lead since the middle of the first set.
Trailing 14-12, the Miners staved off match points with a Pustahija kill and an Ali Darley block to claw back to 14-14, but Rice closed out the match with two kills. UTEP had opportunities on each of those last two points but couldn't find the big hit.
On match point, "We perfectly executed a pass there at the end and we just set a ball a little off the net that forces us to roll side," Wallis said. "Sara was great, we didn't get her the swing we wanted and they executed. They dug and hit it back at us hard."
That closed a match where Rice trailed most of the way but was able to pull itself up.
"We're really a good volleyball team, we're just not good enough to beat Rice right now, at this moment on 10/8," Wallis said. "But we've got them again, hopefully potentially twice, and that's the measuring stick right now.
"I told my team right now on Oct. 8 we're just not good enough to beat a good, top 25, 11 RPI team in the country, but we're very good. We just have to find a way to make sure in transition, when it counts, we go big and we earn that.
"Man, I just … I love my team, I love coaching them. I'm excited to play it again."
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: NCAA Volleyball: No. 22 Rice outlasts UTEP in five-set thriller