Overall Effort Leads Volleyball Past UTEP

Friday, October 15

Fogelman Arena

7:00 PM

Tulane University

UTEP

Oct 15, 2010 | Women's Volleyball

Oct. 15, 2010

Box Score

Box Score (PDF) | Season Statistics (PDF)

NEW ORLEANS - When the match reached a boiling point inside Fogelman Arena on Friday evening, the Tulane volleyball team turned up the heat and came away with a 25-18, 25-21, 25-21 victory over UTEP. The Green Wave posted a .320 hitting percentage and limited the UTEP offense to just 28 kills in their three set victory.

"We had fewer spurts where we gave away tonight and our hitting percentage was up tonight and that's how you win matches," said Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic. "Milica and Cori both had good nights for us on the outside, but the biggest difference was that we stuck to our service strategy. By sticking to our service patterns we kept them out of system a lot. They are dangerous when they run in system, they can set their middles and we avoided that. It was a good win."

The first set was never in doubt for the Green Wave as they raced out to a 7-1 lead, thanks to five straight points during a service rotation from Azarri Badawi. The Miners pulled within three points twice, the last time at 13-10, but Tulane pushed their lead to 19-12 on a kill from Izabela Grot and later ended the match on back-to-back kills from Badawi and Cori Martone. Leading the attack in the opening set was Martone with five kills, while Badawi and Grot each chipped in four.

Tulane never trailed in the second set, with the score being tied just twice, and led 7-3 after kills from Milica Jovic and Martone. The Olive and Blue committed just five hitting errors in the set and led by eight points after a Badawi service ace and a UTEP attacking error. The Miners would cut the lead to four points, 24-20, on a service error by the Green Wave, but Tulane closed the set out with a kill from Jovic just two rallies later.'

The third set was a bit closer with UTEP holding a slim edge for most of the first portion of the scoring. The Miners were ahead 13-12, when a Stephanie Figuero service error knotted things up and a Lindsey Shepard kill gave Tulane the lead for good. Martone followed with a pair of kills, but UTEP closed the gap to one points (20-19) before kills from Badawi and Jovic gave the Olive and Blue a little breathing room. Shepard ultimately finished the set off with a kill and Tulane snapped their five-game Conference USA skid.

Martone paced all players with 15 kills, adding six digs, and Jovic added 14 kills and a pair of blocks in the victory. Mel Mandelbaum collected a pair of kills and handed out 42 assists, while Badawi and Grot each had eight kills.

Tulane improves to 5-14 overall and are now 2-5 in Conference USA action heading into their Sunday, October 17 matchup with UCF. The Green Wave and the Knights will square off at 1:00 inside Fogelman Arena.

--TulaneGreenWave.com--