Tulane University
UConn
Volleyball Comes Up Short In 3-0 Loss At UConn
Oct 23, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
STORRS, Connecticut - The outside hitter tandem of junior Tea Juric and Sarah Ray posted 10 kills each, and Juric completed a double-double with 13 digs, but it was not enough as the Tulane University volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to American Athletic Conference foe UConn on Friday evening in Gampel Pavilion.
The Green Wave (7-14, 1-8 American) led an early lead slip away in the opener, 25-17, and dropped a heart-breaker in the second set as the Huskies (10-10, 4-5 American) rallied for a 27-25 decision. UConn quieted any talks of a Tulane comeback in the third set with a resounding 25-15 win to close out the match.
"It was a disappointing performance all around," Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic said. "We did not play the way we have in most of our matches this year and certainly did not look like the team that has been practicing each and every day back on campus. When that happens, you get the kind of scores we had tonight.
"It's over and done with now. All we can do is regroup, try and learn what we can from this and move on. We have a tough match coming up on Sunday at Temple and then we open the second half of the conference season next week at home. We just need to keep working at the little things that we've been focusing on and play at a much higher level. This team is much better than we showed tonight, but we have to prove it with our effort and execution on the court during matches."
Ray and freshman libero Lisa Mordell were second to Juric defensively with nine digs apiece, and junior middle blocker Sarah Strasner paced the front-line unit with six blocks (3 solo, 3 assists). Junior setter Lauren Etta had 11 of the Green Wave's 29 assists, and fellow junior Ally Frank was next with 10.
Tulane got off to a good start in the opening set and held a 13-9 lead midway through the stanza. UConn rallied to tie the set at 13-all and after trailing 16-15, rattled off six-straight points to take a 21-16 lead the Huskies would not relinquish before going on to win by eight.
The two teams traded the first 22 points of the second frame and the Huskies broke an 11-all deadlock with a 5-0 run to claim a 16-11 advantage. The Green Wave answered with an 8-2 run to take a 19-18 lead and later held set point at 24-23. UConn, however, scored four of the final five points to take a two-sets-to-none lead in the match.
The final set was all UConn as the Huskies rolled out to a 9-3 lead and never looked back. The lead swelled to as many as 11 at 24-13 and Tulane fended off a pair of match points before UConn's Tosin Adeniyi put down her fifth kill of the night to clinch the match.
Kenya Cason led a balanced UConn offense with 12 kills and tallied a double-double of her own with 13 digs. Jade Strawberry was next for the Huskies with nine kills while Erika Thomas added eight. Kennedy Arundel led all players with 17 digs and Adeniyi had a team-best four blocks (all assists). Rebecca Rivera and Emma Turner contributed with 18 and 16 assists, respectively.
The Green Wave return to action on Sunday, Oct. 25, when they travel to Philadelphia to take on Temple. First serve for that match is slated for noon. (CDT). From there, Tulane will open a four-match homestand on Friday, Oct. 30, when the Wave begin the second round of conference play against USF at 7 p.m. inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse.
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).
