Tulane University
Saint Louis
Volleyball Drops Hard-Fought Match At Saint Louis
Oct 12, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 12, 2001
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Four Green Wave players finished with a double-double, and sophomore middle hitter Lauren Jones-McClain fell one block shy of a triple double, but it was not enough as the Tulane University volleyball team dropped a hard-fought Conference USA match, 3-2, to Saint Louis Friday evening at Bowman-Eberhardt Center.
Jones-McClain led the team with nine blocks, tied Erin Dobyanski for team-high dig honors with 18 and chipped in with 11 kills. Mistakes cost the Green Wave, however, as Tulane committed 23 attack errors, 12 service errors, six reception errors, five ball handling errors and four blocking errors to give the Billikens 50 of their combined 120 points in the match.
The loss, Tulane's first since a 3-2 decision at Houston on Sept. 21, drops the Green Wave to 12-6 overall and 5-2 in C-USA play. Saint Louis, which snapped Tulane's five-match winning streak, improved to 6-8 overall and 3-3 in league play.
"It came down to service errors and hitting errors," head coach Betsy Becker said. "Lack of discipline and errors is why we lost the match.
"The bottom line is if we can fire on all cylinders, we can be unbelievable. But tonight, we played like we were on a carousel where the horses go up and down. At one point, one or two players are hot, but the rest aren't. We've got to focus on getting everyone involved in the offense, but make sure that we continue to take care of our defense."
Junior outside hitter Britney Hurst led Tulane with 22 kills while redshirt-freshman Anastasia Kenon was next with 18. Dobyanski joined the double-digit kill club with 14, but Tulane did not have an answer for Saint Louis middle blocker Colleen Hunter who led all players with 30 kills while adding 14 digs, six blocks and two assists.
"You've got to give credit to Colleen Hunter because they live and die by her," Becker said. "The rest of the players on the team are support cast for her, and Colleen is simply a top-knotch Conference USA player."
Hurst, sophomore outside hitter Karlyn Daly and Kenon joined Jones-McClain and Dobyanski with double-digit dig totals as Hurst tallied 17 digs, Kenon had 15 and Daly added 11. Case fell two assists shy of her career-high with 61, and added four kills and seven digs.
Game one was a back-and-forth battle as the teams traded points early on. Saint Louis went on a 4-0 run to take a 13-8 lead, but the Green Wave came right back with a 6-0 run to take its first lead of the day, 14-13. It would be the last lead of the stanza for Tulane, though, as SLU answered with a 3-0 run to take the lead for good and win the game 30-26.
But it game two, it was all Green Wave. After falling behind early, 3-2, Tulane went on a 9-2 run to take an 11-5 advantage and would never trail again. The lead swelled to as many as 11 as the Green Wave led 23-12, and Tulane cruised to a 30-18 victory.
Neither team could get control in the third stanza as the game featured 20 ties and numerous lead changes. But with the score knotted at 27-27, Hurst served up an ace to start at 3-0 run and the Green Wave won the hard-fought contest, 30-27.
Tulane was not able to carry the momentum of a game-three win over into the fourth stanza, however. The game was close early on as Saint Louis led 6-5, but the Billikens went on a 4-0 run to take control of the match. Tulane battled back and cut the lead to 17-16, but the home team countered with a 3-0 run to regain control of the stanza, and Saint Louis never looked back en route to a 30-25 win.
Tulane and Saint Louis traded the first six points of game five, but the Billikins went on a 3-0 run to take the lead and outscored the Green Wave 8-5 the rest of the way to take the game 15-8.
The Green Wave returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 13, when Tulane travels to Tennessee to take on C-USA foe Memphis at 7 p.m. After the match against the Tigers, Tulane returns to the Big Easy and will take on intra-city rivals UNO at the Lakefront Arena before returning to the friendly confines of Fogelman Arena on Friday for a 7 p.m. showdown against league opponent Marquette.
