Box Score UTPB Volleyball won both its first match of the season and its first Heartland Conference contest of the season Thursday night with a hard-fough 3-1 win over St. Marys on the road in San Antonio.

The Falcons came up big in the opening set, rallying for trailing by four points to come through at the end. Taking advantage of a serving error at 24-24, Ariana Gallardo and Puava Tulau blocked the set-winning point to take the first 26-24.

UTPB built in separationg early in the second set when Tulau and Margje Damstra blocked an attack and Taylor Black had back-to-back aces for an 8-4 lead. The Falcons pulled away with a five point run to go on top 20-12. A kill by Caitlyn Guajardo put the team up 24-17, and they took a 2-0 match lead on an attack error, winning the second set 25-17.

The Falcons dropped the thid set 29-27, missing a chance to sweep the match after having led 19-16 earlier in the set with two different chances to serve for the match win.

UTPB didn't pass up the opportunity in the fourth, scoring the first four points in the set. They broke away for good with a four point run to lead 16-10 and won the match on a block by Guajardo and Marina Salazar.

Tulau tied for the match lead with 11 kills on the night and the Falcons also got double digit winners from Margje Damstra (10), who led the team with a .217 hitting percentage. Damstra and Erica Poe had four blocks each on the evening, while Jordan McDonald led all players on the night with 24 digs and Gallardo had a team-high 21 assists.

The Falcons look for another conference win Saturday afternoon, taking on Texas A&M International at noon in Laredo.