Tulane University
Tulsa
Volleyball Drops Heartbreaker in Five Sets at Tulsa
Nov 15, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
TULSA, Okla. – Tulane volleyball very nearly snapped their two-match losing skid as they took Tulsa to the fourth set with a 2-1 lead, but the Golden Hurricane stormed back to win the final two sets, sending the Green Wave to a 3-2 loss on Sunday at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
Tulane (9-19, 3-13 The American) dropped the opening set to Tulsa (13-15, 8-8 The American), 25-18, before returning the favor with the same score in set two. The Green Wave took the lead in set three with an exhausting 30-28 win before falling 25-18 in set four and 15-10 in the final stanza.
"We had an up-and-down performance," stated Tulane volleyball head coach Sinisa Momic. "When things are going well, we play well. We've just not been consistent enough to close a match. We started very slow in the first set before coming out and playing well in sets two and three. We couldn't close in four and they beat us in the fifth, where we started weak again."
The five setter was the ninth on the season for the Green Wave, and the second against Tulsa. Tulane had defeated the Golden Hurricane, 3-2, back on Sept. 25, but history would not be repeated on Sunday.
The Green Wave got off to a rough start in set one. The action was relatively close until the middle of the game when Tulsa scored four-straight to go ahead 18-11. After a timeout, Tulane picked up a point on a Tulsa attack error, but the Golden Hurricane scored 11 of the final 18 points of the set to take a 1-0 lead. Junior Annie Shurtz paced the squad in kills with four in the first set, while sophomore Sarah Ray notched four digs.
Set two was polar opposite of the first, as Tulane led from virtually the start to the finish in a 25-18 win. Ray and freshman Aubrey Folk recorded four kills each, while freshman Lisa Mordell posted nine digs alongside junior Tea Juric's six.
After the intermission, both teams came out blasting, and extra points were needed to determine the victor. The Green Wave led until the 10-point mark when Tulsa flipped things. Tulsa looked to be running away with the win, but three-straight attack errors put Tulane within two before freshman Dayna Kern notched a kill off an assist from junior Ally Frank. Tulsa managed to stave off the threat for a while longer until Tulane overtook the action at 25-24 on attack error. After a ball-handling error by the Golden Hurricane at 29-28 was committed, Ray finished things off with her fourth kill of the set to give the Green Wave a 30-28 win, and a 2-1 set lead.
However, Tulsa rebounded in the final two sets, as Tulane hit just .069 as a team in the fourth set while the Golden Hurricane hit at a clip of .231. In a winner-takes-all fifth set, Tulsa hit .308 to Tulane's .000 to squeak out a victory.
"It's important for our development to learn how to close things out so we don't continue to make these mistakes," added Momic. "Tulsa played better in game five."
Three Green Wave volleyballers notched double-doubles on the day in Juric, Frank and Ray. Juric paced the Green Wave in kills at 15 while adding 20 digs. Ray and Folk added 13 and 10 kills, respectively, while Ray added 13 digs. Frank added 10 digs while posting 29 assists.
Mordell led the team in digs with 21. Junior Lauren Etta added 20 assists and junior Sarah Strasner was the team's leader in blocks with seven (1 solo, 6 assists).
The Green Wave will head to Houston to take on the Cougars at the Athletics/Alumni Center on Wednesday, Nov. 18 before returning to the Uptown campus to close out the home portion of their schedule with a tilt against East Carolina on Sunday, Nov. 22.
Following their final home match, Tulane will take on Memphis (Nov. 25) and Cincinnati (Nov. 27) on the road.
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).
