Tulane University
South Florida
Volleyball Falls At South Florida In Season Finale
Nov 11, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 11, 2001
TAMPA, Fla. - Sophomore middle hitter Lauren Jones-McClain tallied a team-best 14 digs and two blocks, but it was not enough to overcome a tough South Florida squad as the Tulane University volleyball team dropped a tough Conference USA contest to the Bulls, 3-0, in the regular-season finale Sunday afternoon at The Corral.
No Green Wave player tallied double-digit kill totals and Tulane hit just .060 as a team with 30 kills and 22 errrors in 133 attacks. Junior outside hitter Britney Hurst led the club with seven kills while the freshman trio of setter Katie Case, middle hitter Deva Fowler and outside hitter Anastasia Kenon each tallied five in the loss. Senior middle hitter/right-side hitter Erin Dobyanski joined Jones-McClain in double-digit dig totals with 10.
"On the positive side, had we played like this on Friday, we would have seen a different outlook," head coach Betsy Becker said, referring to Friday's 3-0 loss at UAB. "Our main problem tonight was offense. Only our setter hit above .300. We needed to have two others in our lineup hitting the ball well and scoring points. Instead, we faltered in our attack.
"I give a lot of credit to South Florida. They established their middle attack early, and kept feeding it. They didn't have to rely just on their outsides because their middles were hot. I felt like we did a good job of neutralizing Michelle Collier who was last year's conference player of the year. We held her to an 18 kill percentage, and that's the first time we've been able to do that. They had a complete team and don't have to rely on just one player.
"We can mirror a team like this because we've got good defense and passing. But our hitters have to step it up in their volleyball IQ. We have all the athleticism needed to win, and now we have to combine that with a sense of playing the game smarter."
Tulane concludes the regular season with a 16-13 record, marking the first time since 1994 that the Green Wave finished the year with a winning record. Tulane earned the No. 9 seed in the 2001 Healthy Choice Conference USA Tournament in Houston next week and will take on eighth-seeded Memphis on Thursday.
"Right now, we're going into the tournament with a record of 0-0," Becker said. It's a fresh start, and we can take the things we've learned this season and put them to use. If we can take care of the small things like eliminating the mental mistakes and unforced hitting errors, the big things will take care of themselves. Eliminating the small things can amount to big things in the end."
Both teams had runs in the early goings of game one, but when the dust settled, the score was tied at 10-10. That trend would continue throughout the middle portion of the contest as well. But with the game knotted at 19-all, South Florida went on a 5-0 run thanks to a pair of Bull blocks and kills as well as a two attack errors by the Green Wave, and Tulane found themselves on the wrong side of a 25-19 score. USF would go on to lead 27-20, and Tulane would cut the lead to four at 27-23, but that was as close as the Green Wave would get as the Bulls went on to win 30-24.
Tulane took the early lead in game two, holding a 4-2 advantage, but Bulls roared right back to tie things up at 4-all and again at 6-6. From there, South Florida took control of the match with an 11-4 run and grab a 21-12 lead. Tulane cut the lead to five with a 4-0 run, forcing USF to call a timeout, but the Bulls would come right back with a 5-1 rally to all but put the game away. The Green Wave would cut the lead to four at 28-24, but South Florida would score the final two points of the contest to win, 30-24.
Errors cost Tulane early in game three as USF turned six Green Wave miscues into half of their points in a 12-5 contest. The lead would swell to eight at 16-8, but the Green Wave would come back with a 6-2 rally to cut the lead to five at 18-13, but that would be as close as Tulane could get. With the score 20-15 in favor of the Bulls, USF rattled off five straight points to start at 10-2 rally to end the game and take game three, 30-17.
Michelle Collier led three Bulls with double-digit kill totals with 12 while Shameka Mitchell and Jolene Patton each had 11. Collier and Patton paced the USF defense with 16 digs a piece, and Alessandre Domingos finished with 14.
