Rice University
19-8,13-3AAC
Florida Atlantic
18-12,8-8AAC
Rice Falls in AAC Semifinals
11/23/2024 2:59:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
WICHITA, Kan. - The Rice Owls (19-8, 13-3) volleyball team fell in five sets to the Florida Atlantic Owls (18-12, 8-8) on Saturday afternoon in the AAC Championships at Charles Koch Arena.
Samarah Hill led the Owls with her seventh double-double of the season and her third-straight, posting 18 kills with 12 digs. Lola Foord matched her career-high of 17 kills and posted a new career-high in attempts with 50. Lademi Ogunlana was the third and final Owl to post double-digit kills with 10.
Savannah Skopal led the Owls with 44 of the team's 65 assists, and posted 15 digs for her seventh double-double of her freshman campaign. Kaia Mateo tallied 15 assists, Nia McCardell had five, and Kaitlyn Knobbe accounted for the final assist on the team.
Defensively, Rice tallied a season-high 96 digs. McCardell led the Owls with 24 assists, followed by Skopal's 15 and Darby Harris's 14. Hill had 12, and Campbell Love posted 10 to account for Owls with 10 or more digs. Of the 13 Owls that played, 11 had at least one dig.
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET ONE (RICE 25-23)
The early goings of the match were close, with neither side posting any larger than a one-point lead until 11-11, where FAU pulled away at 14-11. Rice then used a 4-0 run to take a 15-14 lead at the media timeout, then extended the lead to 17-14. FAU tied it up at 19-all, and kept the match close for the remainder of the set, but Rice held onto the lead to narrowly take the first set, 25-23.
SET TWO (RICE 25-14)
After a close beginning and a 7-7 tie, the Rice Owls never looked back and dominated the remainder of the set. FAU tried to halt Rice's progress with a timeout called at 9-7, but Rice would outscore FAU 5-1 before FAU called another timeout at 14-8. From that point, Rice would outscore FAU 11-6 to easily claim the set. Rice hit at a .400 clip compared to FAU's .074.
SET THREE (FAU 25-22)
FAU charged out to an early lead at 7-3, and continued pushing to hold a multi-point lead until Rice called timeout at 11-6. Rice would close the gap at 14-13, forcing FAU to call a timeout, but would immediately rattle off a 3-0 run coming out of the timeout to take a 17-13 lead over Rice. From there, Rice would outscore FAU 6-1 to take its first lead of the third set at 19-18. FAU's 3-0 response would force Rice to call a timeout, then FAU took a 23-20 lead. While Rice would cut the lead to one at 23-22, a block assist and a kill would get FAU on the board, down 2-1.
SET FOUR (FAU 25-20)
Rice's early 10-6 lead forced FAU to burn an early timeout, but from that point, FAU outscored Rice 5-1, forcing Rice to take a timeout at 11-11. With the match tied at 12-12 after that point, FAU would outscore Rice 18-15 to make Rice take another timeout. Rice cut the lead to 19-17 and 21-19, but FAU outscored Rice 4-1 in the end of the set to tie the match up at 2-2.
SET FIVE (FAU 15-10)
Rice came out to an early 3-1 lead in the final set of the match, but an 8-0 run by FAU put the Owls up 9-3. Rice would dig into the lead at 9-5 and 10-6, but a 4-0 run would out FAU up 14-6 in the deciding set. Rice would go on a 4-0 run of its own to cut the lead to 14-10, but FAU would take the final point to advance to the AAC Championship.
The Owls will await to hear its postseason fate.
