Tulane University
UCF
Volleyball Drops 3-0 Decision To League-Leading UCF
Oct 26, 2014 | Women's Volleyball
Tulane/UCF Box Score In PDF Format
Squaring off against a team that has garnered votes for the AVCA Top 25 and was riding the crest of a nine-match winning streak, the Green Wave gave the Knights everything they could handle in sets one and three only to see UCF prove its meddle in each frame en route to a 25-21, 25-11, 25-20 decision. In defeat, Tulane fell to 5-17 on the year and 3-7 in American action. UCF, meanwhile, improved to 17-5 overall and 10-0 in league play.
"They're a good, athletic team," Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic said. "They lead the conference for a reason. They have played hard and challenged some of the toughest teams in the nation this year. In games one and three, we tried to challenge them by serving tough. I think it succeeded, but we weren't able to side-out consistently throughout the match. The effort was there. We followed the game plan and it worked for us - especially in sets one and three - but we got into some negative runs and were too inconsistent."
Freshman outside hitter Sarah Ray was second to Juric on the team with six kills and the duo added seven digs apiece. Sophomore setter Ally Frank had 21 of the team's 25 assists and sophomore middle blocker Sarah Strasner led the squad with four blocks (1 solo, 4 assists).
The Green Wave got off to a good start, scoring the first three points of the match and rolling out to an 11-5 lead. UCF, however, used a 9-2 run over the next 11 serves to take a 14-13 and never trailed again. Tulane hung tough and trailed by just one at 21-20 late in the frame only to see the Knights close out the set with a 4-1 run to put the set away.
Tulane also led early on in set two and held a 5-2 lead. From there, the Knights rattled off six unanswered points to take the lead and outscored the Wave 13-6 the rest of the way to take a two-set-to-none advantage. The third set was a back-and-forth affair which featured nine ties and a pair of lead changes. With the score knotted at 17-17, UCF used a 3-0 run to create some separation and held off a late Green Wave rally to complete the sweep.
"Overall, we played better than we did on Friday and we were very competitive," Momic said. "It was a pretty tight match with the exception of game two, when we weren't able to sustain our serve-receive on a high enough level. The biggest thing for us was that we actually took some risks and were really aggressive. That's a very big positive to take from this match."
Jale Hervey led UCF with a match-high 11 kills while Kia Bright was close behind with 10. Bright completed a double-double with 10 digs to go with her kill total with Jade Hayes adding 10 digs of her own. Marie Reiterova and Dana Faught combined for 31 of the team's 36 assists with respective totals of 20 and 11, and DeLaina Sarden paced the Knights with three blocks (all assists).
The Green Wave return to action on Friday, Oct. 31, when they play host to SMU at 1 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.
