The season is young, barely two weeks old, and many moving parts are still being pieced together.

But straddling the line between short-term and long-term aspirations can be delicate. There’s not much time to celebrate a win or dwell over a loss. There’s always another practice to conduct or match to play.

UTSA volleyball coach Carol Price-Torok understands this much quite well.

“The great thing is when the set’s over, you get to take a breath, you get to switch sides, you get to start over,” Price-Torok said. “I think that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The next step in such a process continues when the Roadrunners host the UTSA Invitational on Friday and Saturday at the Convocation Center.

UTSA (1-3) plays Holy Cross from Massachusetts (10 a.m.) and Abilene Christian (7 p.m.) on Friday and Incarnate Word (2 p.m.) on Saturday. Incarnate Word (2-1) faces Abilene Christian at 12:30 p.m. and Holy Cross at 4 p.m. on Friday.

This weekend’s tournament comes two days after the Roadrunners faltered vs. Texas State 26-24, 19-25, 25-23, 25-16 before 1,246 fans, the largest home crowd since 2,711 showed up to watch UTSA take on No. 6-ranked Texas on Sept. 19, 2017.

UTSA led Texas State 24-16 and only needed a point to win the opening set. The Bobcats, though, reeled off 10 straight points to prevail.

The Roadrunners rebounded to capture the second set and even the match at 1-1. In the pivotal third frame, Texas State rallied from an early six-point deficit and tallied the final two points after the teams were tied at 23.

The Bobcats, who received an at-large berth into the NCAA Division I tournament a year ago, rode a 7-1 run to grab control early. They eventually build a 12-point advantage at one juncture before closing out the match.

“Texas State was a great team; they took advantage when we were down, and we need to figure out how to put the gas on the pedal and really stick it to them,” said UTSA junior outside hitter Caroline Krueger, who had eight kills in her first match of the season after missing last week’s tournament at Old Dominion recovering from a concussion. “I think we can learn how to finish. I feel like we’re getting into a groove, and I’m really excited for this weekend. We’re going to get back in the gym (Thursday) and really focus on what we need to fix so that we can be successful this weekend.”

A pressing area of improvement for UTSA, which received strong efforts vs. Texas State from junior Mia Soerensen (match-high 16 kills and 2 1/2 blocks) and freshman Martina Franco (10 kills, 10 digs and three aces), is how it closes out sets.

In its season-opener vs. William & Mary on Aug. 30, UTSA squandered a 22-18 lead in the first set and lost the frame (26-24) and contest.

“At the end of the day, we put up some really great numbers, and from a stat line, you see that we were pretty equal,” Price-Torok said of the match vs. Texas State. “But we were a little too error-heavy at the end of sets and that prevented us from winning some of those sets.”

terrence@terrencesports.com
Twitter: @sa_terrence1