Fort Worth, Tx. -- Freshmen Mia Bilusic (Zagreb, Croatia) and Mila Ilieva (Vidin, Bulgaria) put up the best performances of their young careers to help lead the UMBC Volleyball team (1-4) to a five set win (25-18, 25-23, 26-28, 14-25, 15-11) over WAC foe UT Rio Grande Valley (2-1) on Thursday evening.
Bilusic finished with a match-best 18 kills and 13 digs for her first career double-double. She also added two blocks, two aces and an assist. Ilieva had a career-high 10 kills on .348 hitting and added four blocks and two digs.
The Retrievers took the first two sets and had a 24-19 lead in the third before the Vaqueros rallied to take the set and eventually force a deciding fifth set. UMBC then used a 7-2 run to extend a 7--6 lead to a 14-8 lead in the fourth, before a Bilusic kill put an end to the UTRGV comeback attempt and gave UMBC a 15-11 set victory to win the match.
Beste Ayhan (Istanbul, Turkey) hit .417 with five kills (no errors) and a match-best eight blocks. Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) picked up her fourth-straight double-double with 41 assists and 11 digs,while Loren Teter (Redondo Beach, Calif.) led all players with 15 digs.
Emily Ferketic (Pittsburgh, Pa.) had eight kills, five blocks and four digs, while Grace Rigsbee (Suwanee, Ga.) had seven kills and four blocks.
The Retrievers will close out play in the Cowtown Classic when they face Nicholls State (3-1) tomorrow at one, followed by a matchup with host TCU (2-2) at 8 p.m.
