Tulane University
Purdue
Volleyball Drops Tough 3-1 Decision to Purdue
Sep 4, 2010 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 4, 2010
Box Score (PDF) | Season Statistics (PDF)
PITTSBURGH - A young team seems to be growing up for the Tulane volleyball team, as they played their most competitive match of the season against Purdue on Saturday morning at the Pittsburgh Invitational, falling 3-1 to the Boilermakers. The match save 27 ties and just eight lead changes throughout as the Green Wave dropped the match by scores of 18-25, 27-25, 14-25 and 24-26.
"I saw a big improvement from last night to this morning," said Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic. "I think we have found a lineup and our young team is really starting to play well together. We still have some bad habits, but overall we made a lot of progress. We moved Cori back to the outside and that had a big impact. Amaris stepped up and took a lead in the libero role and (out coaching staff) finally saw some improvement and a different level of competiveness."
The first set was tied at 2-2 before the Boilermakers used a quick 5-0 run to open up an early lead. The Purdue lead would reach six points at 12-6, but Tulane would score five of the next six points, including a kill and service ace from Lindsey Shepard, to make it 13-11. The deficit would hover around two points until late when PU scored five of the final six points to claim the opening set.
Tulane grabbed a 4-0 lead to start the second set, but Purdue knotted things up with the next four points to tie the set for the first of 13 times in the match. No team held more than a two-point edge until the Boilermakers grabbed a 23-20 lead, but two kills from Cori Martone, a Milica Jovic kill and a bad set from the PU setter tied things at 24-24. After trading points, Izabela Grot and Azarri Badawi closed out the set with back-to-back kills to give Tulane the 27-25 set win.
The third set was 2-2 early on, but five straight point by Purdue opened up an early lead and the Boilermakers never trailed from that point on. Badawi and Grot each recorded three kills in the set, but the Green Wave could only muster seven kills as a team in the 25-14 defeat.
The Green Wave reached a fourth set for the first time in the young 2010 season and nearly forced a decisive fifth set, but fell 26-24. The Olive and Blue held a 11-6 lead over Purdue behind three kills each from Badawi and Grot and held that lead until the Boilermakers knotted things up at 17-17. The Green Wave held the momentum from that point on, until PU strung together four of the final five points to close out the match.
Overall, four separate Green Wave attackers reached double-digs in kills. A pair of players recorded double-doubles in the match, with Jovic collecting 11 kills and 11 digs, while Martone had 12 kills and 15 digs. Freshman Mel Mandelbaum handed out 45 assists and Genemaras paced the team with 16 digs. As a team, TU had season-high 50 kills, but hit just .164 and committed 14 service errors in the loss.
--TulaneGreenWave.com--
