Rice University
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UTEP
Owls Defeat Miners 3-0
10/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 26, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
The Rice Owls volleyball team upped its record to 17-5 with a victory over the visiting UTEP Miners Sunday afternoon in Fox Gymnasium. Game scores were 25-20, 25-22, and 28-26. The Owls are now 8-3 in Conference USA action to stay in third place. UTEP is now 6-18 overall and 2-8 in C-USA play.
"This was our fifth match in nine days and I thought our kids responded well especially after a tough match vs. Tulane," commented Rice head coach Genny Volpe. "Our play may have gotten a bit sloppy at times today, but it was nice to post 4-1 record during this stretch."
With the two teams tied at 7 in set one, Rice took control and went on a 5-1 run for 12-8 lead that it would not relinquish. The Miners did not cave in and went on a late run themselves taking the score from 23-15 to 24-20, before Rice's Jessica Holderness punctuated the winning point with a kill.
Holderness led Rice with 4 kills and a .364 attack percentage. The Owls outhit UTEP .262 to .231 as each team racked up 14 kills.
Rice started strong in set two opening with an 8-3 lead but UTEP battled back to be down only one at 17-16. UTEP was behind at 21-19, before an Ashleigh McCord kill gave Rice a 22-19 lead. Natalie Bogan concluded the scoring with a kill to give the Owls a 2-0 set lead.
Bogan led Rice with 8 kills in set two and .727 attack percentage with 0 errors in 11 attempts. McCord added 5 kills in 7 attacks for a .714 attack percentage.
UTEP hit .364 with 12 kills, but Rice countered with 20 kills and a .375 attack percentage.
In set three, UTEP jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but the Owls went on a 7-1 run to forge a 7-6 margin. A tip-kill by Rice's Meredith Schamun broke a 19-19 tie. A UTEP hitting error and a McCord kill put the Owls ahead at 22-19. The Miners came back to knot it up at 23 apiece. With the score tied at 26-26, the Owls were able to get the win on a UTEP hitting error and a Bogan kill to clinch the match.
Holderness led Rice in set three with 5 kills.
On the day the Owls totaled 49 kills to UTEP's 41 and hit .292 to the Miners' .270.
Jessica Holderness led Rice with 12 kills, while Natalie Bogan added 11 and a .526 attack percentage, and Ashleigh McCord posted 10 kills.
Amy Sanders led UTEP with 12 kills.
Owl setter Meredith Schamun had 36 assists and Tracey Lam led all defenders with 21 digs for a 7.0 dig per set average.
Rice now plays at Tulsa on Friday at 7 p.m. and at SMU on Sunday at 1 p.m.
