Crouched in front of her team’s bench on Saturday, UTSA volleyball coach Carol Price-Torok smacked the floor with both hands in elation.

Sophomore outside hitter Mia Soerensen and freshman middle blocker Miranda Putnicki had teamed for a massive block that gave the Roadrunners — who had already won the opening set — a commanding lead early in the second frame.

One set later, Price-Torok looked on nearly incredulous after her team suddenly lost its rhythm. For the Roadrunners, it was almost a nutshell of their season. For every glimpse of the team’s potential, there have been growing pains.

The learning curve lately is trending upward, and it continued its trajectory on Saturday afternoon as UTSA defeated Tulane 25-20, 25-14, 15-25, 25-19 in American Athletic Conference action before a crowd of 1,163 at the Convocation Center.

It was the Roadrunners’ third straight win — their third streak this season of at least three wins in a row — and it comes on the heels of the team snapping a seven-match losing streak.

“Obviously, we want to win everything,” said Putnicki, who had four kills and four blocks. “When we play really good teams, especially when we play with them, it shows us that we can do this. What we’ve been doing well, I think it’s easy for us to see that.”

What UTSA (11-11 overall, 4-7 in AAC) did well on this occasion was display a balanced offense, tough serving and blocking. The Roadrunners had six players with at least four kills, led by Soerensen’s 14 and Cansu Gunaydin’s 12. Caroline Krueger had eight and Katelyn Krienke added five.

The Roadrunners netted 12 aces, led by libero Aliah Giroux’s five. Gunaydin, Ellie Turner and Krueger each contributed two aces. They had 10 blocks, paced by Putnicki’s four and Soerensen’s 2 1/2.

Each of the aspects was key in moments, but it was the serving that was pivotal late in the fourth set. With Tulane (4-18, 0-10) trailing only 20-19 and looking to extend the contest to a do-or-die fifth set, Giroux uncorked three aces during a 5-0 closing run to secure the victory.

“I think we did face a lot of adversity, and we continue to sometimes, but our main thing is just that we all have to be ready at any time, and play for each other and with each other, and it’s paid off for us in the last three games,” said UTSA junior setter Mekaila Aupiu, who had 34 assists, 10 digs and four kills. “I think we had a hard time starting off conference against some hard teams (Rice, SMU and South Florida). I think we just took things we could work on from those games and emphasized them, and we’ve been doing really well.”

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