Rice University
TCU
Owls Squish the Horned Frogs - Win 3-1
11/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 28, 2008
Rice volleyball concluded its 2008 regular season with a 3-1 win over visiting TCU in Tudor Fieldhouse. Game scores were 25-15, 17-25, 25-15, and 28-26. The Owls are now 23-7, while TCU falls to 20-11.
Rice came out fired up for set one taking an early 8-1 lead. An Ashleigh McCord kill gave the Owls a commanding 15-8 lead that would increase to 19-9 before capturing the set 25-15.
McCord led all hitters with 6 kills and an .857 attack percentage. The Owls hit .382 with 15 kills to TCU's .051 and 11 kills.
TCU equalized the match with a 25-17 set two victory by hitting .316 to Rice's .137. The Owls did total 15 kills and were led by Karyn Morgan's 6 kills.
Set three saw the Owls storm back with a 25-15 win. Rice was ahead 14-11 before taking a 19-13 and never looking back. The Owls hit an astonishing .441 hitting percentage with 16 kills to TCU's .184 and 13 kills. Natalie Bogan and Jessica Holderness led Rice with 4 kills each.
In an exciting fourth set that witnessed both teams battling back and forth, the Rice Owls prevailed 28-26. McCord gave Rice a 27-26 lead with a kill. Tracey Lam's serve that was on its way to sailing long and out of bounds hit TCU libero Katelyn Blackwood, who was trying to get out of the way, in the head for the deciding match point.
Karyn Morgan led Rice in set four with 8 kills and a .471 hitting percentage and McCord added 7 kills has the Owls talliled 23 kills and a .300 hitting percentage. TCU hit .345 with 19 kills.
On the night, four Owls were in double-digits in kills. Karyn Morgan led all attackers with a match-high 20 kills, Ashleigh McCord (.429) followed with 18, Natalie Bogan posted 15 kills (.500) and Jessica Holderness pounded 11 kills. Morgan and Holderness also had double-doubles with 19 digs and 15 digs respectively.
Owl setter Meredith Schamun had 57 assists and 16 digs and Tracey Lam had a match-high 25 digs. Lam now has 560 digs on the season, just nine short of the school record set by Yvette Kirk in 2006. Lam certainly would have broken the record as three Rice matches at the SFA Ladyjack Invitational were canceled due to Hurricane Ike.
As a team, Rice hit .296 with 69 kills, while the Horned Frogs hit .235 with 56 kills. Christy Hudson led TCU with 15 kills, while Kourtney Edwards and Lauren Otto added 11 kills.
The NCAA will announce the pairings for the 64-team championship field on Sunday night at 9 p.m. on ESPNU.
