Volleyball Earns Comeback Victory Against Wichita State Sunday

Sunday, October 13

Wichita, KS

1 PM

Tulane University

13-6,5-1AAC

Wichita State

4-14,3-3AAC

Tulane

Wichita St.

Photo by: Harrison Baker

Volleyball Earns Comeback Victory Against Wichita State Sunday

Oct 13, 2019 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

WICHITA, Kan. – After spotting Wichita State the first two sets and staring down a potential sweep on the road, the Tulane Green Wave volleyball team rebounded in a big way and took the final three sets in thrilling fashion to earn a five-set victory 27-25, 22-25, 25-17, 27-25, 15-11 Sunday afternoon at Koch Arena in Wichita.

Using a different lineup than in previous matches, the Green Wave (14-5, 4-2 The American) refused to quit and saved its best and most consistent play for last to upend the Shockers (4-14, 1-5) to move to 5-0 on the season following a loss.

"I was proud because it was a great team effort," head coach Jim Barnes said. "We played some players who haven't had much playing time like Lizzy doing a good job stepping in and playing well when she was set and helping us out in that regard. Same thing for Mia who comes in and struggles in the beginning but then gives us an opportunity to win these sets. And that's the thing, until we're 100 percent healthy we've got to find ways to win and we did that today and that's what I'm most proud of."

Lexie Douglas earned her second double-double in as many matches as she led the Green Wave with 15 kills and adding 17 digs and four blocks. Kristen Thompson had 13 kills and hit .200 for the match for Tulane, while Yvette Burcescu had 11 kills and six blocks in the win.

Sophomore middle Kayla Dinkins led all players with 10 blocks in the match, finishing a kill shy of her own double-double with nine kills on a .421 hitting clip.

Both of Tulane's setters on the day earned double-doubles, as Amanda Giardina had 27 assists and 10 digs, while Taylor Henigsman had 23 assists and 13 digs. Kaylie McHugh had 23 digs, six assists and two of the team's four service aces on Sunday.

Early, Tulane played like a different team that took the floor on Friday night in Tulsa. However, by the end of the set the Green Wave would be unable to hold off the Shockers after holding the lead for all but the final three points of the opener.

The Green Wave began the match by going on a 6-1 run and seemingly firing on all cylinders both offensively and defensively. But the home side wouldn't make things comfortable for Tulane for stretches of the first set as the Shockers found ways to pull within anywhere from one to three points.

A kill from Burcescu put Tulane just a pair of points away from taking the first set with the team leading 23-19. Unfortunately for the Green Wave, Wichita State rattled off four points and tied the match at 23. Tulane got two of the next three to go up 25-24, but the points for the team ended there as the Shockers closed the set with three-straight points to take the first 27-25.

Tulane opened the second set by taking an early lead again, but Wichita State didn't need as much time to make a turn and go on top midway through. A block from Burcescu and Dinkins gave the Green Wave a 5-3 lead over the Shockers, but WSU connected for each of the next three points to go up 6-5.

The Green Wave got two of the next three to knot the match twice in that span but following that Wichita State went on to outscore Tulane 8-3 and take a 15-10 lead to force the Wave into a timeout. Tulane responded by scoring four consecutive points out of the timeout and was able to keep things within reach for much of the remaining duration of the set.

Tulane finally made that breakthrough after a pair of unforced WSU errors gave Tulane the lead at 22-21, but the Wave would be unable to make anything else happen from there as Wichita State got four points after that to take the 2-0 lead in the match by taking the set 25-22.

Tulane came out in the third as a team on a mission from the start, as this time the Shockers would not be able to mount a rally or comeback late. With the set tied at 5-5, the Green Wave got a 6-0 run punctuated by a Lizzy Stefanov kill to go up 11-5. Another Stefanov kill pushed the lead back to six midway through the set as Tulane led 18-12.

The Shockers would not earn consecutive points for the rest of the frame, as Tulane had its best hitting set of the day so far, hitting .255 while Wichita State hit .122, as Tulane forced a fourth set by taking the set 25-17.

The fourth set proved to be a back-and-forth affair with both sides using spurts of quality play to earn points and having a hand at taking the lead. Wichita State was up 8-5 before a 4-0 run for the Green Wave became a 9-8 lead.

After tying the fourth at 14-all, Wichita State earned three consecutive points to force the Green Wave into a timeout trailing 17-14. The break worked as Tulane scored four of the next five to tie the set again at 18-18, keeping pace until one of Markenzie Benoit's six kills of the night and block with Douglas gave Tulane the lead up 21-20.

Both sides had a chance to end the proceedings, with Tulane going up 24-22 and Wichita State at 25-24. Fortunately for the Green Wave, a kill from Dinkins followed by a WSU attack error and a Douglas kill pushed the match to a fifth set after winning 27-25.

Tulane got the first point of the fifth, but Wichita State earned each of the next four to go up 4-1 as Tulane called a timeout. The Wave got kills from Douglas and Thompson out of the break to pull within two, which stood as the dividing line between the two sides for much of the rest of the finale. Down 9-6, Tulane rallied to go on a 3-0 run to tie the set at 9-all as the Shockers called a timeout.

After a Tulane block, Wichita State got the next two points to go up 11-10 and force the Green Wave into using their final timeout, but that would be the end of the Shocker offense as Tulane ended the match going on a 5-0 run in which it hit .333 as a team to claim the fifth 15-11 and secure the victory.

"Every match is going to be a battle in this league. Everyone is very even, but our theme today was faith. That was the word for today and we needed that more than ever being down 0-2, but we kept believing," Barnes said. "Being down 8-6 at the turn in the fifth set, it was the same thing and we were able to carry it out and finish strong in the end."

Tulane returns home for a two-game weekend of conference action, beginning Friday night taking on the Cincinnati Bearcats at 7 p.m. inside Fogelman in Devlin.

Single-game tickets for the 2019 season can be purchased by calling 504-861-WAVE (9283), logging into TulaneTix.com or visiting the ticket office at the James W. Wilson Jr. Center.

Follow Tulane volleyball on social media at @GreenWaveVB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Follow Tulane Athletics on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

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