Rice University
Tulane
Tulane Defeats Rice 3-2
10/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 24, 2008
In only its second five-set match of the season, the Rice Owls were defeated by Conference USA rival Tulane 3-2. Game scores were 15-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-22, and 11-15. Rice is now 16-5 and 7-3 in C-USA matches, while the Green Wave improves to 17-5 and 8-1 in league action.
"Tulane is a really good team and we did battle with them," commented Rice head coach Genny Volpe. "But, at the same time we are still disappointed with the loss. Overall our team understands we are playing really good volleyball right now and with this matchup knew that it could go either way. We just needed to play stronger in the fifth set as Tulane is more experienced."
Tulane came out strong at the beginning of set one with a 3-0 early lead. Rice battled back to take 6-4 lead, before the Green Wave went on 12-4 run for a 16-8 margin. Tulane had four service aces and 15 kills (.353), while Rice posted 10 kills and a .167 attack percentage.
With improved passing, the Owls fared much better in set two with 20 kills and a .459 hitting percentage. Rice took an early 14-10 lead, but Tulane came back to be down only two at 21-19. With the Owls ahead 23-22, Jessica Holderness pounded two kills for the final two set points. Natalie Bogan and Karyn Morgan each had 6 kills in set two, while Holderness had 5. Setter Meredith Schamun had 16 assists for Rice.
Tulane hit .293 with 16 kills, 6 of which were provided by Visnja Djurejevic.
The Green Wave took a 13-12 lead in set three and never looked back in winning 25-18. Tulane hit .229 with 13 kills,while the Owls slumped to .053 with 10 kills and 8 errors. Freshman Ashleigh McCord led Rice with 5 kills for a .571 hitting percentage.
Sara Radosevic posted 8 kills for Tulane in set two.
Set four saw the two balanced squads battle back and forth. With the score tied at 21-21, a Holderness kill put the Owls up for good at 22-21 and after a Bogan kill the Owls were ahead 23-21. Another Holderness kill gave the Owls the victory.
Holderness led Rice with 5 kills and a .364 attack percentage as Rice hit .229. Tulane hit .093.
Tulane scored the first four points of set five before the Owls went on a 8-2 run to take a 8-6 lead. The Green Wave then went on a 6-2 run of its own to forge a 12-10 lead before winning 15-11.
On the night, Bogan led Rice with 16 kills and a .361 hitting percentage. Holderness and McCord were also in double-digits with 13 and 12 kills respectively. Rice hit .205 with 60 kills
Schamun posted a match-high 48 assists and Karyn Morgan had 20 digs with Tracey Lam contributing 18 digs.
The Green Wave's Radosevic led all attackers with 21 kills and 18 digs as Tulane tallied 65 kills and a .235 attack percentage
Rice now hosts UTEP on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Fox Gymnasium.
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