Volleyball Set to Open Season vs. UH

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Match 1 | vs. Houston Cougars | Saturday, Jan. 23, 2 p.m.
Location: Houston, Texas (Tudor Fieldhouse)
Video Stream: CUSAtv
Live Stats: Sidearm
Series: Houston leads, 61-20 (Last Meeting: Rice Won 3-0, 9/17/16)

Saturday's opening match, which will be streamed on CUSAtv, will not be open to the public in accordance with the Rice University's COVID-19 mitigation policies. Rice Athletics is currently working with the Rice Crisis Management Team on potential seating layouts to accommodate some level of attendance for future matches and will communicate those plans to our season ticket members and the public at the appropriate time.

Match 2 | at Houston Cougars | Sunday, Jan. 24, 2 p.m.
Location: Houston, Texas (UH Athletics/Alumni Center)
Video Stream: Facebook
Live Stats: S tatbroadcast

HOUSTON - The Rice Owls volleyball team will make their long awaited season debut this weekend when they take on the Houston Cougars in a home-and-home series. The Owls will be making their first appearance since December of 2019 when they advanced to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. Rice will be facing UH for the first time since 2016.

NOTES

Coming off a season in which they won 27 matches, the Owls were picked to win the Conference USA West Division in this year's Coaches' Poll. In addition, Rice is receiving 26 votes in this year's preseason AVCA Top-25 rankings released on Jan. 5.
Rice placed senior outside hitter Nicole Lennon and junior middle blocker Anota Adekunle on this year's 12-person C-USA Preseason All-Conference Team.
Lennon enters her senior season following a 2019 campaign in which she earned AVCA and VolleyballMag.com All-American honors. The three-time C-USA First Teamer set career-highs last season in kills (505), kills per set (4.81), hitting percentage (.288), digs per set (3.45) and total points (552.0). Lennon set a league record by being named the C-USA Offensive Player of the Week seven times and was selected to the AVCA All-Region Team. She led Rice with 20 double-doubles and had 20 or more kills eight times.
Adekunle, who also garnered AVCA and VolleyballMag.com All-American Honorable Mention honors, ranked sixth in the NCAA last season in hitting percentage with a Rice single-season record .425 clip. During conference action last season Adekunle ranked second in the league in hitting percentage (.462), kills per set (3.60), and was sixth in blocks per set (1.11). An AVCA All-Region and C-USA First Teamer last year, Adekunle amassed 340 kills from the middle and total 92 blocks.
Rice returns four starters and eight letterwinners from last year's team and will be incorporating six newcomers.
Genny Volpe is in her 17th season with the Owls and is the school's all-time leader in totals wins (313) and winning percentage (.632). She notched her ninth, 20-plus win season for the Owls in 2019.
The Owls have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons and last year compiled the second-most wins in program history (27-4), while turning in a 13-1 mark in conference play. In 2019 the Owls entered the Top 25 at No. 22 in September, reaching as high as No. 17 and coming in at No. 24 in the final poll.
Rice is 20-20 all-time in season openers.
The top four teams in each division will qualify for the C-USA Volleyball Championship. Southern Miss will host the eight-team, single-elimination tournament April 1-3 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
After this weekend the Owls travel to SMU for a pair matches next week, Jan. 29-30.

-RiceOwls.com-

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Anota Adekunle

Nicole Lennon

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