Tulane University
Lamar
Volleyball Falls to Lamar to Start Saturday
Sep 17, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 17, 2011
NEW ORLEANS - The scoreboard wasn't kind to the Tulane volleyball team in their four-set loss to Lamar to open play on day two of the Kathy Trosclair Memorial at Fogelman Arena on Saturday. Tulane held the edge in most of the offensive categories, but unforced errors led to a 22-25, 25-20, 19-25, 13-25 loss to the Cardinals.
"It was emotionally draining to lose in five (on Friday night)," said Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic. "Then it's a problem for young players to get into the flow again and not to lose that confidence. If we had played Lamar first, it might have been different. Our unforced errors have really hurt us. Almost every match, even if we're out digging the team and out hitting them, it's our unforced errors at the end that matter. That's the biggest issue with our inconsistency, unforced errors. But I guess that's what a young team has to go through to learn."
The Green Wave led 1-0, but Lamar scored three straight points to take the lead for good in the opening set. The Cardinals lead was just one point, 6-5, when Megan McStravick started her service rotation and that lead quickly reached four points thanks to a kill and service ace by McStravick and a ball handling error by the Green Wave. Later in the set, McStravick connected on a kill to make it 23-17 in favor of the visitors, but Tulane reeled off four straight points and closed the gap, at 23-21. The Cardinals would side out the rest of the set and claim the opener, 25-22.
The second set was Tulane's from the start and the Cardinals were only able to knot the frame at 2-2 before the Green Wave would take control. Eight of the next nine points would go the way of the Wave, with Milica Jovic and Grace Weaver each chipping in two kills during that spurt to make it 10-3 in favor of the home team. The Cardinals would eventually pull within four points, 19-15, but the Olive and Blue chipped away and eventually evened the match with a 25-20 set victory.
In the third stanza, Tulane had 16 kills to only 11 for Lamar, but the Cardinals committed only two attacking errors, compared to eight for the Green Wave. Lamar raced out to a 5-0 lead and built a margin of 9-3 in the early goings. Tulane rallied back to knot the match at 11-11 and trailed by just one, 15-14, mid-way through. The visitors scored ten of the final 15 points in the set and grabbed the momentum with a two sets to one lead.
Lamar closed out the match in the fourth set, grabbing control early on and coasting to a 25-13 decision. The Cardinals hit .308 in the final set and Tulane never got closer than four points after the visitors pushed themselves out to an 8-2 lead. The Green Wave had just five players record a kill in the set and was limited to -.032 attacking.
In the match, Jovic led all players with 14 kills and Cori Martone added 13 kills. Izabela Grot grabbed eight kills for the Olive and Blue, who posted 49 kills to 46 for Lamar. Tulane also held the edge in total attacks (139-109) and assists (48-42), but eight service errors, ten service reception errors, three blocking errors and three ball handling errors added up and eventually cost them a shot at the victory.
--www.TulaneGreenWave.com--
