Tulane University
UCF
Late Rally Pushes Volleyball Past UCF
Nov 5, 2010 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 5, 2010
Box Score (PDF) | Season Statistics (PDF)
NEW ORLEANS - A tightly contested match came down to the final points on Friday evening at The Venue at UCF, with the Tulane volleyball team claiming a 3-2 victory over the host Knights by scores of 25-21, 16-25, 25-22, 17-25, 15-13. The Green Wave closed out all three of their set wins with blocks and converted in crunch time to claim their first road win of the 2010 slate.
"We fought to the very end and we never gave up tonight," said Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic. "It was a good team effort and Nikki really did a great job as our libero tonight. Everybody really contributed tonight and our team effort was the true reason for this victory. Overall, it wasn't the prettiest victory, but we fought through it and this will hopefully give us some confidence going into our match at UTEP."
Tulane jumped out to an early lead in the opening set, with Cori Martone collecting a block and a kill to give TU a 2-0 lead and eventually the visitors led 10-4. The Knights charged back with an 8-2 run and then took their first, and only, lead of the set at 13-12 on an attacking error by Izabela Grot. The Green Wave reclaimed the lead at 14-13 and built a five-point edge at 20-15. UCF cut the lead to 23-21, but a Martone kill, followed by a block from Grot and Martone to give Tulane the early 1-0 lead.
The second set was all UCF's from the onset, with the Knight building an early 10-3 advantage and holding to claim the set 25-16. Tulane limited the Knights to a .165 hitting percentage, but the Green Wave posted nine kills and committed 11 hitting errors to account for a -.045 attacking average in the set loss. Martone and Lindsey Shepard each collected three kills, while three others posted a kill as the match was evened at 1-1.
Martone and Grot again gave the Olive and Blue an early advantage with kills to start the third set and Tulane eventually led 8-4 before UCF mounted another comeback and knotted things up at 8-8. The two teams played close over the next few points, before three Grot kills and a pair of kills from Milena Dragovic gave them a 17-13 lead. With the Green Wave's lead at 20-16, UCF again tied the score at 20-all before the visitors closed things out, with the final point coming on a block from Martone and Milica Jovic.
The fourth set was a tightly played contest with Tulane holding the early edge and UCF taking the final lead of the set. With the contest tied at 11-11, UCF took the lead on a kill from Evija Vilde and tallied 13 of the final 20 points to claim the set and send things to a decisive fifth set.
The fifth set was a microcosm of the match, with Tulane leading early, UCF coming back to take a late lead, but this one ended with the Green Wave rallying for the victory. Tulane scored the first six points of the set and led 8-3, when UCF charged back and tied things up at 11-11. The Knights took a 13-11 lead, but Dragovic, Martone and Jovic each posted kills and a Tulane block on a Kristin Fischer attack ended the set and gave Tulane the hard fought victory.
Martone posted her second straight double-double with ten kills and ten blocks, while the freshman also chipped in two assists and four digs. Grot posted a match-high 18 kills and hit .317 overall, while Nikki Osuna led all players with 27 digs. Lilly Wolfe handed out 21 assists and added eight digs to go along with 27 assists and seven digs from Mel Mandelbaum.
With their first road victory of the season, the Green Wave is now 8-18 overall and 5-9 in Conference USA play. The Olive and Blue will look to close out their road swing with a victory at UTEP on Sunday, November 7 starting at 1:00 p.m.
--TulaneGreenWave.com--
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
