Volleyball: Owls Win Two at Roadrunner Invitational
9/10/2004 SAN ANTONIO, Texas ? The Rice volleyball team got the weekend off to a strong start defeating Iowa State 3-1, then host Texas-San Antonio 3-0 in the first day of the Roadrunner Invitational on Friday in San Antonio.
In the first match of the day, the Owls rallied for a 24-30, 30-27, 30-26, 31-29 victory over the Cyclones behind the hard hitting of Rebeca Pazo and the big block of Tessa Kuykendall. Pazo struggled in game one, but turned things around in the second set, knocking down seven kills, while Kuykendall notched four blocks as Rice evened the match at 1-1.
Pazo was even more impressive in game three, recording 11 kills on 17 attempts with no errors to hit .647. With the Owls holding the scoring edge for most of the set, Pazo closed out the game scoring Rice's final five points.
The momentum of game four kept swinging, and with the Cyclones seemingly having taken control and serving for the game at 29-27, Rebecca Kainz got the ball back for the Owls with a kill. It then became the Pazo/Kuykendall show again. First Kuykendall teamed with Kristina Hoban for a block assist to knot the score at 29-29. She then recorded her third solo block of the match to give Rice the lead. Pazo closed the door on Iowa State with her 26th kill of the match. Kuykendall finished the match with 12 total blocks, tying her for fourth on Rice's single-match record list.
The Owls faced the Roadrunners for the second time in three days in the second match of the day with similar results, taking the match 30-21, 30-26, 30-22. Pazo and Kainz led Rice in the opening game, with Pazo getting the first kill as the Owls led the entire way. Pazo had five kills in the game and Kainz added four and a block, leading Rice to a .324 hitting percentage (16-4-37).
UTSA picked things up in game two, leading until the Owls finally knotted the score at 15-15. Rice pulled ahead with some impressive hitting from Pazo and Lindsey Carter but the Roadrunners evened the score four more times, before the Owls closed out the game, scoring four straight. Pazo knocked down another six kills hitting .600, and Carter recorded five kills to hit .635 as a team, Rice hit .500 in the game.
The Roadrunners again took the early lead to start game three, but the Owls' offense picked up after a sluggish start and put away the match. Pazo added another five kills in the game to lead all hitters with 16 in the match.
Rice, now 5-1 on the year, closes out the tournament on Saturday with a 5 pm match against Drake. |
