Balanced attack leads UTSA to Tuesday sweep of Prairie View A&M

SAN ANTONIO Behind a season-high .375 hitting percentage, UTSA cruised to its second consecutive sweep with an easy 25-9, 25-13, 25-17 victory against Prairie View A&M on Tuesday night at the Convocation Center. The Roadrunners (3-4) limited the Lady Panthers (0-5) to an .074 hitting percentage and forced 15 errors in the match.

Freshman Dempsey Thornton paced UTSA with a 12 kills, while redshirt junior Kelsey Schwirtlich guided the offense with 25 assists and senior Kelsey Jewasko led the back row with 11 digs.

UTSA opened up a 10-4 advantage in the opening frame and forced Prairie View A&M to call a timeout. The Birds cruised following the break in the action by reeling off a 15-5 run. Thornton provided the punch for the Roadrunners after leading the club to a .387 hitting percentage. The Corpus Christi native racked up five kills in the set, including the final winner to give UTSA the 16-point win.

The Roadrunners used a season-high .625 hitting percentage to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.



UTSA raced out to a 9-1 advantage, and after pushing their lead to 22-11, the Birds won three of the final five points to close out the set.

Back-to-back service aces by sophomore Laura Witt allowed UTSA to open a 7-2 lead in the final stanza. The Roadrunners increased their edge to 23-10 before the Lady Panthers started a run of their own. Prairie View A&M ripped off a 7-0 spurt to pull within six, but junior Allie Bettinger racked up a cross-court winner and senior Elise Huskey and sophomore Cara Tripp combined on a block to end the match.

The Lady Panthers received 16 assists from Maria Moulaz and 10 digs from Shanice Faison.

UTSA will kick off a nine-match road trip on Friday at the Pioneer Classic in Denver, Colo. The Roadrunners will take on tournament host Denver (2-4) and Missouri (8-1) on the opening day of play.