Volleyball Sweeps Southern Miss Invitational, Names Three to All-Tournament Team

Saturday, August 27

Hattiesburg, Miss.

6:00 P.M. CT

Tulane University

3-0

Southern Miss

2-1

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
TULANE	22	24	25	27	15	3
Southern Miss	25	26	20	25	13	2

Volleyball Sweeps Southern Miss Invitational, Names Three to All-Tournament Team

Aug 27, 2016 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Final Stats

HATTIESBURG, MISS. – Tulane volleyball fought to the finish in the final match of the Southern Miss Invitational on Saturday night at Oak Grove High School, taking the Golden Eagles (2-1) to five sets to improve to 3-0 on the season. The victory marks Tulane's first tournament sweep since the 2013 season.

HOW IT WAS WON

Tulane fell behind early in set one, ultimately dropping the first outing by a slim margin of 22-25. The Green Wave inched closer to the Golden Eagles in the second set but were unable to take the lead towards the end, falling 24-26 and finding themselves in an 0-2 deficit for the first time on the weekend.

The 25-20 final in set three proved the largest margin of victory so far in the match and tilted the momentum to Tulane's favor, opening set four scoring seven straight points before the Golden Eagles were able to get on the board. Tulane held the lead for the majority of the set, falling behind late in the game but eventually claiming its second victory of the night in a close 27-25 contest.

Southern Miss took an early lead in the fifth and final set of the night before Tulane notched four straight kills to come within a point of their former conference foes. The Green Wave played a game of catch-up for the remainder of the set, tying the Golden Eagles twice before clinching their third victory of the weekend on senior right side/middle hitter Tea Juric's team-leading eighteenth kill of the night.

Following the final match, three Tulane players were named to the All-Tournament Team: senior outside hitter Tea Juric, senior middle hitter Sarah Strasner and sophomore outside hitter Hannah Shaw.

QUOTE

"This team has a lot to offer. They're growing every day, and when they play as a team, especially at crunch time, they're a special group. It was discouraging starting out 0-2, but at halftime, we talked about how, statistically, we had outplayed them in those sets. We jumped on them early, getting the lead and earning that momentum, and we rolled that momentum all the way to the end."

--Tulane head coach Jim Barnes

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

- Senior OH Tea Juric: 18 kills (.298), 19.5 points, 3 blocks

- Sophomore OH Hannah Shaw: 13 kills (.273), 14.0 points

- Junior S Justine Bowers: 37 assists, 3 service aces, 3.0 points

UP NEXT

The Green Wave will be back in action next weekend for the Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Classic, hosted in Tulane's own Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse. Jim Barnes and his squad will take on UT-Rio Grande Valley on Friday night at 7:00 PM.