Rice University
UTSA
Owls Beat UTSA 3-2 in Volleyball
8/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 28, 2010
Houston - Rice volleyball improved to 2-0 on the year with a 3-2 victory over UTSA at the Rice Invitational inside Tudor Fieldhouse. Set scores were 14-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-23, and 15-10. The Roadrunners are now 1-1 on the year. UTSA and Texas Tech play at 5 p.m. Saturday night, with the Ole Miss Rebels and the Owls doing battle at 7:30 p.m. to conclude the weekend's festivities.
Owl setter Meredith Schamun had a match-high 50 asssists. Schamun now has 4,085 career assists to rank second all-time at Rice and 15th in Conference USA. She now needs 456 assists to surpass Katie Meyer's record of 4,540 (1988-91).
The Owls were led by the duo of Ashleigh McCord and Nancy Cole. McCord had 19 kills, while Cole posted 15 kills. Freshman Mariah Riddlesprigger also had 11 kills. Tracey Lam had 19 digs, while McCord and Jordan Meredith each had 14 and 11 respectively
UTSA was led by Kendra Rowland's 19 kills, while Whitney Walls added 16 kills. Kelsey Jewasko had a match-high 25 digs for the Roadrunners.
In the first set, UTSA raced out to a 14-5 lead before winning 25-14. The Roadrunners hit an incredible .417 with 11 kills (11-1-24), while the Owls posted 12 kills, but also 11 hitting errors for an anemic .027 hitting percentage. UTSA's Kendra Rowland led all attackers with 5 kills, while Laurie McNamara led Rice with 4 kills.
The Owls were down 16-14 before outscoring UTSA 11 to 5 for a 25-21 set-two victory. Rice's Ashleigh McCord led all attackers with 7 kills and a .357 attack percentage. Both teams pounded 15 kills, but the Owls had the higher hitting percentage at .324 (15-3-37) to UTSA's .190 (15-7-42).
Rice started hot in set three by forging an early 7-1 lead. UTSA regrouped with strong defensive effort to take its first lead at 18-17 and held on to win the set 25-22. The Roadrunners hit .405 with 19 kills, while the Owls hit .286 with 15 kills. Rowland led UTSA with 6 kills, while the Owls were led by Nancy Cole's 4 kills.
The Owls won a tightly contested fourth set 25-23 and forced UTSA to play in its second straight five-set match. Rice had 13 kills and was led by Mariah Riddlesprigger's 5 kills. UTSA had 11 kills.
Rice won the match by winning the fifth set 15-10. McCord led Rice with 5 kills and .714 attack percentage.
Mississippi (1-1) easily defeated Texas Tech (0-2) 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, and 25-9) in first match of the morning.
