Tulane University
Lamar
Volleyball Closes Tournament with Five-Set Loss
Sep 2, 2012 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 2, 2012
Box Score (PDF) | Season Statistics (PDF)
BEAUMONT, Texas - It was an up and down match for the Tulane volleyball versus the host Cardinals in the finale of the Lamar Invitational. The Green Wave won the opening set, dropped the next two, won the fourth in decisive fashion before Lamar finished off the match with a fifth set win to claim the match. It was the second five-setter of the season for TU as they suffered the setback by scores of 25-17, 16-25, 23-25, 25-17, 10-15.
Tulane exchanged the first ten points with the Cardinals in the opening set before going on a 12-4 run to bust open the set. It was a three-headed attack in the opening set with Milica Jovic posting six kills, Cori Martone added five kills and Grace Weaver grabbed four successful swings. In the set, the Green Wave hit .389 as a team with 16 kills and just two errors.
The script was flipped in the second set when Lamar broke a 9-9 tie by scoring 12 of the next 15 points on their way to a 25-16 triumph. Tulane hit .391 in the second frame, but the Cardinals hit .462 and carried that momentum into the third set. In the third set, Lamar hit .270 and benefitted from five Green Wave miss-hits to move within one set of the match.
The Green Wave did not go quietly, busting out a .265 hitting percentage and forcing Lamar into ten attacking errors to run away with a 25-17 victory to knot the match at two sets apiece. Martone boasted six kills in the set, while Anna Wruck had a pair of kills and two blocks to send it to a fifth set.
In the fifth set, Lamar raced out to an early 5-0 advantage in the race to 15 and eventually led 10-4 before Tulane would claw back. A Martone kill capped a 5-2 Tulane scoring run that made it 12-10 in favor of the Cardinals, but Lamar scored the final three points of the set to grab a hard-fought victory.
Martone paced all players with 20 kills and added 13 digs for her fourth double-double of the season, while Weaver had another solid match with a 10 kill/20 dig stat line. Milica Jovic tallied 12 kills and hit .321 on the night Mel Mandelbaum earned all-tournament honors after posting a 6.67 assists per-set average - 80 total in three matches - to go along with 27 digs. Mandelbaum handed out 27 assists and boasted eight digs in the tournament finale.
Tulane will return home to host the Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Classic this weekend on the Uptown campus. This season's field includes Mississippi State, Pittsburgh and Sam Houston State, with the Olive and Blue opening up play at 7:00 p.m. versus Mississippi State. The tournament kicks off at 10:00 a.m. with Sam Houston State taking on Mississippi State.
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