Tulane University
Houston
Volleyball Comes From Behind To Defeat Houston, 3-2
Oct 26, 2008 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 26, 2008
HOUSTON - Five Green Wave hitters posted double-digit kill totals, including a season-high 18 by junior right-side hitter Ksenija Vlaskovic, as the Tulane University volleyball team rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Conference USA rival Houston in five sets Sunday afternoon at the Athletics Alumni Center.
The Green Wave won the opening stanza, 25-21, but were one set away from a loss after falling in the next two stanzas, 25-20 and 25-19. Tulane earned a hard-fought 25-22 decision in the fourth set and used a big run early in set No. 5 to earn its first win at Houston since 2004. With the victory, Tulane ran its winning streak to seven straight to improve to 18-5 on the year and 9-1 in C-USA play. The Cougars, meanwhile, dropped their first home match of the season to fall to 14-10 overall and 6-5 in league action.
"A lot of good things happened today," Tulane head coach Liz Kritza said. "Yes, it was too close at times and we gave up some unnecessary plays today where we allowed Houston to test us perhaps more than they should have. I am not taking anything away from Houston. That is a good ballclub there, and they have an excellent coach. Bill Walton always does a very good job of making our players truly earn their points, which they had to today.
"I think we got better as a team, not necessarily volleyball-wise, but we learned that sometimes sheer effort will pull you through to some wins, of course, if you are accustomed to playing at a high enough level."
After tying the match at two sets apiece, Tulane stormed out of the gates in the final set and held an 8-1 advantage before switching benches. From there, Houston used a 4-1 rally to cut the Green Wave lead to four at 9-5, But Tulane outscored the Cougars 6-4 the rest of the way to keep the winning streak alive.
Vlaskovic led the offense in kills and posted a .351 attack percentage with just five errors in 37 swings while chipping in with three digs and three blocks to post a season-best 19.5 points. Senior outside hitter Sara Radosevic and junior setter Rachel Lindelow posted double doubles for the Wave as Radosevic posted 14 kills and 14 digs while Lindelow tallied a team-best 33 assists to go with 12 digs.
Senior middle blocker Jen Linder tallied a season-high 12 kills and hit .750 on the day with no miscues in 16 swings, while senior right-side hitter Bridget Wells and freshman outside hitter Visnja Djurdjevic rounded out the five players in double digits with 12 and 11 kills, respectively.
Junior libero Jenn Miller, who suffered from flu-like symptoms on Saturday and had a hard time keeping any food down throughout the weekend, led Tulane with 15 digs. Despite being under the weather and being one of the primary targets in Houston's serving game, she did not allow a service ace in 33 opportunities.
"We were concerned today about Jenn Millerand her ability to play today due to illness," Kritza said. "Here was a kid who was extremely ill yesterday and her first physical activity was coming to our pass-and-serve before the match today. She was hardly able to keep any food down. I never had a moment's question that once our trainer gave her the green light to play that she would be ready to go.
"I knew that she was going to give us everything she had today. It was really a good showing for the rest of the team because she personified what this team is about. It is about giving your best every day. Her best today was not what it normally is and she knows that, but she gave everything that she had, as did her teammates. "
Tulane scored the first two points of the match, but Houston pushed ahead 11-8 early in the contest. From there, however, the Wave scored eight unanswered points to taka 16-11 advantage. The Cougars hung tough and cut the lead to three at 24-21but following a timeout, Vlaskovic found the floor to close out the set.
The Green Wave rolled out to an 8-4 advantage early in set No. 2, but this time it was the Cougars' turn to strong together consecutive points as Houston used a pair of 5-0 runs to claim a 16-10 advantage. Tulane rallied to cut the lead to one at 20-19 and 21-20, but the Cougars answered with a 4-0 run to end the frame and tie the match at on set apiece.
The third set was all Houston early on as the Cougars roared out to an 11-5 advantage. Tulane used a 4-0 run to make it a two-point affair and cut the lead to one at 14-13. That would be as close as the Wave would get, however, as Houston used a 7-3 run to stretch its lead to 21-16 and never looked back.
Trailing 2-1, Tulane scored the first three points of set No. 4 and that proved to be the final margin of the stanza. The set featured eight ties and a pair of lead changes, but when the dust settled, the Green Wave led by three to force the match-deciding fifth set.
"That fifth set for us is what we were looking for from the get go," Kritza said. "They realized that they were underperforming in three very important areas. We did not pass like we should have, we were not running our offense properly - it is usually a much faster, much more aggressive offense - and we were allowing Houston to score on us at will.
"We had to keep their sideout percentage down and we had to get ours back up to closer to 70 percent. That is what you have to do in order to be successful in this game. If we play without those three things intact, then we struggle as we did earlier in the match. I was proud of the way we were able to turn things around and started playing properly."
Justine Farmer led Houston with a match-best 20 kills while Lucy Charuk finished with 17 and Ingrida Zauere tallied 10. Cougar setter Kelsey King led all players with 53 assists, and Farmer paced UH with 17 digs. Houston out-blocked Tulane, 14.0-to-7.0, but the Wave still managed to hit .306 with 73 kills and 24 errors in 160 attempts.
The Green Wave return to action on Friday, Oct. 31, when Tulane takes on league foe UCF in Orlando. From there, Tulane will close out its four-match road swing on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at Southern Miss before returning to Fogelman Arena on Friday, Nov. 7, for a 7 p.m. showdown with SMU. For ticket information, contact the Tulane University Athletics Ticket Office at 504-861-WAVE.
