Tulane University
Memphis
Volleyball Rallies But Falls To Memphis In Five Sets
Oct 18, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
Tulane/Memphis Box Score In PDF Format 
NEW ORLEANS - The outside hitter tandem of junior Tea Juric and sophomore Sarah Ray both tallied double-doubles, and freshman libero Lisa Mordell posted a team-best 18 digs, but it was not enough as the Tulane University volleyball team dropped a 3-2 decision to American Athletic Conference foe Memphis on Sunday afternoon inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse.
After winning the opening set, 25-16, the Green Wave (7-13, 1-7) twice fell a few points shy to the Tigers (13-8, 4-4) as Memphis won in the next two frames by respective scores of 25-22 and 25-23. Tulane edged Memphis in the fourth, 25-23, and rallied from an early deficit in the final stanza to take a 9-8 lead. Following a Memphis timeout, the Tigers used a 6-2 rally to hold match point at 14-11. Tulane made things interesting with a kill by freshman right-side hitter Aubrey Folk and a tandem block by Juric and freshman middle blocker Dayna Kern to make it one-point contest before Memphis' Catlin Lilly closed things out with a deep-court kill.
The contest was the sixth five-set affair the Green Wave played since the start of American action back on Sept. 25, and Tulane has now lost its last six matches overall and each of its last five that went the distance.
"Once again, we had the desire but we have to have our skill catch up to that desire in order to win," Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic said. "It's the same story. It's the little things and the little details. We're making tiny, little errors that we can't have if we are going to catch up with our opponents. If we can correct that, we'll have a chance to be up a few points in the end rather than down. The girls showed a lot of effort again. We just have to figure out how to perform our skills better on a consistent basis."
Juric led all players with 18 kills to go with 15 digs, and Ray was close behind with 14 kills while tallying 17 digs, two service aces, three assists and an assisted block. Folk rounded out the three Tulane players in double figures offensively with 10 kills. Kern and fellow middle blocker Sarah Strasner each had eight kills and the duo combined to hit .517 with 16 kills and just one error in 29 swings.
Kern paced the front-line defense with six blocks (1 solo, five assists) and junior setter Ally Frank was one of three Green Wave student-athletes to tally double-figure assist totals with 26. Fellow junior setter Lauren Etta came off the bench to post 16 helpers and freshman Elizabeth Hurring added 12.
As a team, Tulane hit .321 -- its third-highest attack percent of the season and the highest in a conference match to date -- with 66 kills and 16 errors in 156 total attacks. The Wave's 16 attack errors were part of a 37 miscues by the team against the Tigers as Tulane had 11 service errors, seven reception errors and three blocking errors.
"A positive is there are glimpses of how well we can play when we do in fact play well," Momic added. "We're taking teams to five. It's a positive that we have a good, young team. We just have to learn the right lessons from all of these losses in five.
"We've made changes, we've been working on it in practice and we see it from time to time, but then something else goes wrong. What we're lacking right now is just a consistency in all skills all of the time. Most of the team is young...When everyone catches up to play at a certain level, that's when we'll be ready to win these matches."
Lilly was one of two Memphis players to record double-doubles with 14 kills and 12 digs while setter Veronia Zimmerman had 42 assists and 14 digs to go with a trio of service aces. McKenzie Hayes led the Tigers with a match-high 17 kills, Mady Ruhlman paced the defense with 19 digs and Summer Morgan added five assisted blocks.
The Green Wave return to action on Friday, Oct. 23, when they head to Storrs, Connecticut, to play UConn before taking on Temple on Oct. 25 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tulane's next home match is slated for Oct. 30 when the Wave begin the second round of conference play against USF.
Single-match tickets to all Green Wave home volleyball events are available through the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at prices of $6 for adults and $4 for youths (ages 3-12) per contest. Tickets can be purchase by clicking HERE or by calling the Tulane Ticket Office at (504) 861-WAVE (9283).
