Tulane University
SMU
Volleyball Drops Heartbreaking 3-2 Decision At SMU
Oct 12, 2014 | Women's Volleyball
Tulane/SMU Box Score In PDF Format
DALLAS - In the peaks and valleys that young teams go through while growing into a formidable contender, there can often be several small victories despite coming up short on the scoreboard. That was the case for the Tulane University volleyball team on Sunday when the Green Wave dropped a five-set decision to American Athletic Conference preseason favorite SMU in Moody Coliseum.
Trailing two sets to one after sandwiching a 25-22 victory around 25-21 and 25-19 losses, the Wave rolled to a 25-19 win in set four to set up a winner-take-all fifth frame. In the final stanza, however, Tulane fell behind 7-1 and could get no closer than three as the Mustangs clinched the victory with a 15-5 win.
"The girls deserve a lot of credit," Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic said. "They put in a lot of effort and played really well overall against a tough SMU team. At some points, we played very well and took it to five. At the end, we just couldn't maintain our focus and couldn't maintain our level of play. SMU got an early lead in five and finished the match off. Overall, at some points of the match, it was the type of play that we're looking for and it was at a pretty high level. Now we just have to figure out how to be consistent and to understand that if we can play on that level, we can play really well. We just have to be consistent in order to finish matches."
Sophomore right-side hitter Tea Juric posted a double-double courtesy of a match-high 23 kills to go with 10 digs, as did freshman outside hitter Sarah Ray who finished with 16 kills and 15 digs. Sophomore setter Ally Frank had a career-high 51 of the team's 52 assists and added five block assists.
Sophomore libero Miah Diirell led all players with career-best 25 digs and senior defensive specialist Grace Weaver rounded out four Tulane players with double-digit dig totals with 12. Senior middle blocker Anna Wruck paced the squad with six blocks (1 solo, 5 assists).
"We were pretty stable for most of the match," Momic said. "Except for game five, I think everybody played well. There was a lot of energy on the court and on the bench, and that's good. We just have to make sure the girls understand that they can compete how they practice every day. They're good players and they can play volleyball at a high level. They just have to understand how to transfer that into games."
As a team, the Green Wave hit .131 on the strength of 55 kills and 34 errors in 160 swings. Tulane was connecting at a .163 clip through four sets, but the SMU defense forced seven attack errors while the Mustang offense did not commit a miscue of its own in the final frame.
SMU opened set five with back-to-back points before sophomore middle blocker Sarah Strasner put Tulane on the board with a kill to make it 2-1. From there, the Mustangs rattled off five straight points to take a 7-1 advantage, but the Green Wave refused to go away quietly. Another Strasner kill and back-to-back kills by Juric cut the deficit to three at 7-4 and forced SMU to call a timeout. The two teams traded the next two points and with Tulane trailing by three at 8-5, SMU rattled off seven unanswered points to close things out.
"We started off with out of system passing and we weren't able to run our offense," Momic said of the action in the fifth set. "We were out of system with high, outside sets and tried to score on the double block and had some unforced errors. We allowed SMU to get a big, quick lead and we were not able to close the gap."
Abbey Bybel led a balanced SMU offense with 14 kills while the tandem of Kristen Stehling and Katie Hegarty added 11 each and Janelle Giordano chipped in with 10. Bybel completed a double-double with 11 digs to go with her kill total, and Avery Acker had a double-double of her own with 47 assists and 12 digs. Morgan Heise led the Mustangs with 19 digs while Giordano and Hegarty shared team-high block honors with eight apiece.
The Green Wave return to action on Friday, Oct. 17, when it will battle UConn at 7 p.m. in Devlin Fieldhouse. For ticket information to that match, as well as future Green Wave events, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office. The ticket office is located on the first floor of the James W. Wilson, Jr., Center and is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For additional information, call (504) 861-WAVE (9283) or log onto the internet at www.TulaneGreenWave.com.
