CANYON, Texas (October 23, 2026) – It was an historic win as The University of Texas Permian Basin women's volleyball team earned its first-ever victory against West Texas A&M University (1-24) in a series that dates back to 2006. Coming off its first Lone Star Conference win of the season last time out, UTPB played one of its best offensive matches of the season and mixed in the defense in set number five as the Falcons came out on top, 3-2 (26-24, 29-31, 20-25, 25-22, 15-12), playing in one of the toughest environments in the Lone Star Conference at West Texas A&M on Friday night.
Stepping up to help lead the Falcons to their second straight win were
Kaitlyn Salgado with a career-high 21 kills and
Kierra Freeman with 25 assists, 24 digs, and two service aces. That pairing would play a crucial role at the end of the match.
Also totaling double-digit kills were
Makenna Grimes (11),
Giselle Orellana (10) and
Nickilah Whatley (10) while
Emma Gonzalez returned to her role as the team's second setter and provided 22 assists and 11 digs.
Orellana added 13 digs while Whatley added four blocks.
In all, UTPB had five players with double-digit digs and had three players with a double-double.
The largest lead of the first set was four points, achieved twice by the Falcons (10-6 & 24-20). Despite blowing a 24-20 lead in the first set, UTPB was able to win the final two points of the set on a kill by Grimes and a service ace by Salgado to take it by a score of 26-24.
In the second set, it was WT taking a four-point lead (15-11) and then extending its advantage to five points (18-13). However, the Falcons would fight back, scoring four straight points bookended by kills by Whatley to make it just a one-point deficit (19-18). A pair of kills by Grimes kept it at a one-point deficit (23-22 & 24-23), and then after a great dig by the setter, Gonzalez, to keep the rally alive on an attack by WT's Tatum Bush, Bush sent her next attempt right into the net to tie it at 24-24.
In all, UTPB fought off six set points by WT in the second set as Grimes split the defense with a kill to make it 25-25 while Whatley continued to create offensive pressure with a pair of kills to make it 26-26 and 27-27. Doing everything they could to keep the Falcons from taking a 2-0 lead, the Lady Buffs had to fight off set point for UTPB for the fifth time in the match, turning a 29-28 deficit into a 31-29 win after Salgado just missed her attack long on the sideline on the final point.
Despite the result on her final attack, Salgado totaled eight kills during the second set.
The first two sets were as close and as competitive as you could get in terms of high-level offense from both teams.
The Falcons totaled 15 kills and just two attack errors (.289 percent) in the opening set and withstood a furious 19 kills (7 errors, .235 percent) by the Lady Buffs. In the second set, the numbers were even higher as it was UTPB with 20 kills (5 errors, .231 percent) and WT with 23 kills (6 errors, .262 percent).
The third set was less back-and-forth than the first two sets and featured more scoring runs, particularly from the Lady Buffs who opened up a 15-10 advantage. UTPB did a great job minimizing its attack errors during the first half of the match, only committing nine through the first two and a half sets (18-13 in the third set).
A 4-0 scoring run for the Falcons got the Lady Buffs into a funk (two WT attack errors to bookend the run) and cut it to a one-point margin (18-17). The other two points of the run for UTPB came via back-to-back kills by Grimes hitting it off the block attempt by WT.
After a kill by Orellana made it a 22-20 deficit and looked like it might set up another close ending to the set, instead WT answered right back with a quick and emphatic kill by setter Casey Loewer to make it 23-20, and then a service ace by libero Hannah Pemberton on the final point clinched the 25-20 win.
UTPB outhit WT .242-.236 percent through three sets and jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth set after back-to-back kills by Orellana followed by the second ace of the match by Freeman. The third kill of the set by Orellana made it 4-1, and then a kill on a tip by Salgado made it a 5-1 Falcons' lead as UTPB had it going on early. Back-to-back attack errors by the Lady Buffs then made it 7-2 and forced a timeout.
Salgado and Orellana continued to cook, recording back-to-back kills to make it a 10-6 lead. The duo combined for seven kills and zero attack errors in the first 16 points of the set. With the UTPB offense clicking on all cylinders early in the set, the Lady Buffs turned to defense to crawl back into it, getting a great dig off the back of the forearm of a player in the back row followed by a roof on a block by Loewer to make it a two-point Lady Buffs' deficit (12-10). That block started a 4-0 run for WT to take a 13-12 lead on a service ace.
Another ace by the Lady Buffs tied the third set at 19-19, and then tied at 20-20, four great defensive efforts by WT each time on an attack by Orellana kept the rally going and led to an attack error by Orellana on her fifth attempt hitting it too long. Not to be deterred, the Falcons went back to their "bread and butter" as Freeman set one to Whatley in the middle for a kill, and then a second straight kill for Whatley, this time on a tip, put the Falcons back in front 22-21.
UTPB was able to finish it off as a kill by Salgado from Freeman sent it to a fifth set with a 25-22 win in the fourth set.
Salgado (6) and Orellana (5) combined for 11 kills in the fourth set.
This time it was UTPB's turn to flash some defense as a one-handed dig by Freeman led to an attack error by WT to give the Falcons an early 2-1 lead in the final set, and then a block assist by Whatley and Salgado sent the ball straight down to make it a 4-2 lead.
The teams would trade four kills in a row as a kill by Salgado tied it at 6-6, and then UTPB led 7-6 on a WT attack error and 8-7 on a Lady Buffs' service error. An attack error by Loewer going for the setter kill instead went right into the net, making it a two-point UTPB advantage (9-7) and leading to a timeout by WT. The errors for WT began to mount as a blocking error on a player in the net made it 10-8 UTPB, and then an attack error on a long hit made it 11-8.
A kill by Whatley assisted by Freeman made it 12-10 Falcons, and two points later Freeman went to Salgado to make it 13-11. Up just 13-12, Freeman again went to Salgado, who put it down to make it 14-12.
With the upset in the Falcons' grasp, this time it was Gonzalez going to Salgado, who finished off the match with a final kill for a 15-12 victory and UTPB's second three-point win in the final two sets.
Each of UTPB's final three points of the night came courtesy of a kill by Salgado.
Another one of the keys for UTPB in the fifth set was its serve putting the pressure on the Lady Buffs and getting them out of system.
UTPB finished the fifth set with seven kills on just one error (.375 percent).
In all, UTPB outhit WT by just .001 percent (.232-.231) while the Lady Buffs led in points (93-80), kills (78-70), aces (8-4), blocks (7-6), assists (70-61) and digs (97-86). For WT, Kaycee Cavanaugh, the 2024 LSC Co-Freshman of the Year, totaled 26 kills and 20 digs; Pemberton had 35 digs; and Loewer approached a triple-double with 60 assists, 13 digs and seven kills.
It was UTPB's best hitting percentage in a match since the first three matches of the season, and was its most kills and attempts (220) all season long. The 70 kills are the team's most since 2023 and rank as the fifth most in a single match in program history while the 220 attempts are tied for fifth in program history.
"I am so incredibly proud of this group for going into such a tough environment to play in and coming out with a hard-fought win," spoke UTPB Head Volleyball Coach
Melissa Avila. "We battled from the opening point and never let up. It was a collective team effort from top to bottom as we hit .232 percent as a team and had 86 digs behind some gritty defense, a well-run offense and quality block touches that set us up for success. Our communication, discipline and team chemistry showed up tonight, and we just battled."
With its second win in a row and first road win of the season (1-4), UTPB improves to 7-11 overall and 2-10 in the LSC. WT, which came into the match with five wins in its last six matches to get back into the postseason picture (T7th) after starting just 2-3 in league play, instead falls to 12-11 and 7-5.
2025 saw the Lady Buffs make the program's 32nd appearance in the NCAA Division II Volleyball postseason as they advanced to the South Central Regional Semifinals with an overall record of 23-8. Despite its slow start to the season this year, WT was tabbed 19th in the American Volleyball Coaches Association/Taraflex Division II Preseason Coaches' Poll and picked second in the LSC Preseason Poll.
In its final road match of the season tomorrow (Sat., Oct. 24), UTPB will take on Eastern New Mexico University starting at 3 p.m. Central Time / 2 p.m. Mountain Time from Portales, New Mexico.
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