Tulane University
USF
Volleyball Halts Skid With 3-2 American Win Over USF
Oct 30, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
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Tulane/USF Box Score In PDF Format 
NEW ORLEANS - It was a match of ebbs and flows, of highs and lows, and of course it went five sets, but this time around the Tulane University volleyball team came out on top as the Green Wave halted an eight-match skid with a 3-2 win over American Athletic Conference rival USF on Friday evening inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse.
After dropping the opening set, 25-14, Tulane was on the cusp of victory with a 27-25 win in set two and a 25-21 decision in the third period before holding a 19-14 advantage in the fourth stanza. The Bulls, however, rallied to take the set, 25-23, and held a 13-11 lead late in the final frame. From there, however, the Green Wave got a kill by freshman right-side hitter Aubrey Folk, saw back-to-back kills fire off the right hand of sophomore outside hitter Sarah Ray and took advantage of a USF miscue to come out on top, 15-13, to send the crowd home happy.
With the win, Tulane avenged a five-set loss to USF back on Oct. 4 in Tampa, Florida, to improve to 8-15 overall and 2-9 in league play. Friday's match was the seventh five-set contest of the season for Tulane and the Green Wave's first win in match that went the distance since a 3-2 victory over Tulsa in the conference opener back on Sept. 25. The Bulls, meanwhile, fell to 7-16 on the year and 4-7 in American action.
"I'm really happy for the girls," Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic said. "With all of the tight matches that we lost, they never stopped working hard, they never stopped playing together as a team and they have been very unselfish. There are things that we need to get better at, that's for sure, but going through it and not giving up until the end is what pulled us through tonight. We took big swings and created some big points when it mattered.
"We just have to believe that we are capable of doing this and keep working hard like we did this week. We did hundreds and hundreds of reps [in practice], and I want the girls to understand that it's up to us how we play. When we play well and we play like we showed that we can close at the end, that's the important thing to take out of this match."
Junior outside hitter Tea Juric had a double-double with 16 kills and 15 digs to go with three service aces and a trio of blocks (1 solo, 2 assists) and Ray tallied a double-double of her own with 15 kills and 19 digs while chipping in with a pair of aces and a block assists. Folk was next for Tulane offensively with 10 kills while junior right-side hitter Annie Shurtz was close behind with eight.
Freshman libero Lisa Mordell paced the Green Wave with a match-high 21 digs and junior middle blocker Sarah Strasner led the front-line defense with eight stuffs (1 solo, 7 assists). Junior setter Lauren Etta had 24 of Tulane's 24 assists and Ally Frank came off the bench to tally 22.
"Our passing didn't allow us to use our middles as much as we wanted but having four hitters on the pins in a 6-2 system has really worked well for us," Momic said. "Lauren and Ally used their back sets much more and better. Both Aubrey and Annie were getting set a lot and had good hitting performances. That's one of the things that needs to work for us. We can't rely only on the left pin. We have to have six hitters ready to go and setters that are able to execute the offense. That should be one of our strengths."
USF got off to a red-hot start, scoring the first four points of the match and never trailed en route to its 11-point win in the opening set. Things began in a similar fashion in the second set as the Bulls scored three of the first four points before Tulane used a 6-1 run to go ahead 7-4. The Green Wave teams battled to 10 ties along the way, and with the score knotted at 25-all, Tulane got an ace by Juric and a tandem block by Shurtz and freshman middle blocker Dayna Kern to tie the match at one set apiece.
Tulane trailed 8-6 early in the third set before using an 8-0 run to gain control of the period and take a 14-8 lead. USF refused to go away and cut the Green Wave advantage to one at 22-21 on a kill by Dakota Hampton, but could get no closer as junior middle blocker Sarah Strasner made it a two-point affair and Folk hammered home the next two balls to give Tulane a four-point win.
The two teams traded the first six points of the fourth frame before Tulane created some breathing room with a 8-1 run to take an 11-4 lead. The Green Wave were in control at 19-14 only to see USF respond with an 11-4 rally the rest of the way to send the match into the match-deciding stanza. The Bulls scored the fifth set's first two points and held an 8-6 advantage at the traditional bench swap before Tulane used a 4-1 rally to claim a 10-9 lead late in the frame. USF scored four of the next five points to go up by a pair and set up the late-set, Green Wave heroics.
Denise Belcher led the Bulls offensively with 16 kills while Hampton was next with 12. Molly Burkhardt posted a double-double for USF with team-high totals 27 assists and 15 digs to go with three assisted blocks, and Clara Payne paced the visiting squad with eight blocks (2 solo, 6 assists) and three service aces.
The Green Wave return to action on Sunday, Nov. 1, when they play host to American foe UCF at 1 p.m. From there, Tulane will take on Temple on Nov. 6 and UConn on Nov. 8 inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse before opening a three-match road swing on Nov. 13 against SMU in Dallas.
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).
