Rice Takes Down UAB to Improve to 12-2 in AAC Play

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Women's Volleyball

at North Texas

Nov 16

1 PM

Denton, Texas

Women's Volleyball

vs American Volleyball Championship

Nov 21

TBD

HOUSTON - Needing a 3-0 run to tie the match in the third set, Rice (17-6, 12-2) managed to tie the match with the UAB Blazers (10-15, 5-9), then outscore the Blazers 5-3 to clinch the third set and secure the sweep on Sunday afternoon in Tudor Fieldhouse.

"I'm proud of how the team found a way to sweep today," head coach Genny Volpe said about today's performance. "Friday was a very difficult match and was draining so we knew it would be a challenge today. But [we're] happy to finish the weekend undefeated and we are looking forward to finishing strong in conference play."

Katrina Jensen paced the offense with 14 kills on th day, while Lademi Ogunlana followed with 12 kills and the highest hitting percentage of either team with .435. Samarah Hill tallied 10 kills to round out Owls with double-digit kills.

Savannah Skopal tallied 38 assists in the match, to bring her total for the week up to 99 and her digs per set on the week to 12.38, both the highest marks in the American. Libero Nia McCardell accounted for five of the six remaining assists, while Darby Harris tallied the final one.

McCardell led the Owls in digs with 15, followed by Skopal's nine digs. Hill had eight, Haris had six, Campbell Love had four, Jensen tallied three, and Lola Foord collected one to total 46 digs in the match. The Owls also totaled three blocks, with Hill, Knobbe, Ogunlana, and Skopal all getting in on the blocks.

HOW IT HAPPENED
SET ONE (RICE 25-16)
UAB came out hot early, putting the Owls in early holes of 5-2, 6-3, and 7-4. From that point, Rice would go on a five-point run to take a 9-7 lead, forcing UAB to call a timeout. The Blazers would tie the match at 10-10, but that would be the last tie in the first set. From there, Rice would take a 14-10 lead before UAB would score three to cut the lead to 14-13. At 16-14, Rice would go on to outscore the Blazers 9-2 to comfortably take the first set at 25-16.

SET TWO (RICE 25-13)
The second set saw zero lead changes tor tied scores, as Rice was in control from the beginning. The Owls would take a 7-0 lead to begin the set, then stretch it to 11-4. Rice would hold onto the seven-point lead until 16-7, where the team took a nine-point lead, holding with the same margin holding true at 18-9 and 20-11. Rice took its largest lead of the match at 23-12, an 11-point lead late in the set, and easily took the second set at 25-13.

SET THREE (RICE 26-24)
UAB, much like the first set, came out to a large lead, forcing Rice to take a timeout when going down 6-2. UAB would hold the four-point advantage at 7-3, but Rice then used another five-point run to take a 9-7 lead. This time, UAB was able to reclaim the lead after outscoring Rice 5-1, going up 12-10 before Rice cut the lead back to one at 12-11. Rice briefly took the lead back at 14-13, but UAB outscored Rice 7-3 to force the Owls to burn a timeout down 20-17. Going up 21-18, Rice then tied the set with a three-point run, and traded blows with UAB at 22-22, 23-23, and 24-24. Hill put the Owls ahead at 25-24 with a kill, and an attack sailing too far by UAB clinched the set and the sweep for Rice at 26-24.

UP NEXT
The Owls will conclude the regular season with a final home match on Friday against Memphis before taking on North Texas in Denton on Sunday.

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