Volleyball’s run Ends at Conference Tournament With Loss to Cincinnati

Saturday, November 23

Orlando, FL

2:30 PM

Tulane University

21-10,10-6AAC

Cincinnati

24-5,14-1AAC

Tulane

Cincinnati

Photo by: Doug DeFelice

Volleyball’s run Ends at Conference Tournament With Loss to Cincinnati

Nov 23, 2019 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

ORLANDO, Fla. – After playing in a thriller the night before, the Tulane volleyball team came out with a lot of fire to start, but regular-season champion Cincinnati proved to be too much in the end as the Green Wave bowed out of the 2019 American Athletic Conference Volleyball Championship with a 25-20, 25-17, 25-19 defeat Saturday afternoon inside The Venue at UCF.

Tulane (21-10) was held to a .158 hitting percentage in the match, with 31 kills on 28 assists. The Bearcats (25-5) hit .271 and produced 47 kills on 46 assists and will move on to face UCF Sunday afternoon for the tournament championship.

Lexie Douglas led Tulane with eight kills, adding four digs and two blocks. Yvette Burcescu had six kills, two digs and a block, while Lizzy Stefanov and Lauryn Green had five kills each.

Amanda Giardina had 15 assists to go along with four digs, while Jenna Ibieta had 10 assists and seven digs. Kaylie McHugh finished the match with 12 digs and three assists.

Tulane opened the match and wanted to set the tone early that they were ready to play. Winning the first four points and taking eight of the 10 to force Cincinnati into a timeout seemed to do the trick. Once the initial shock wore off, Cincinnati came back in a big way going on a 6-0 run to tie the set at eight and set off a thrilling back and forth between the two sides.

A kill by Kayla Dinkins gave Tulane an 11-10 lead, but the Bearcats scored the next two to go up 12-11. A Dinkins solo block and Burcescu kill made it 13-12 Green Wave, with another two-point swing for Cincinnati making the score 14-13. Green got another kill, but after that the Bearcats got five of the next six points to go on top 19-15.

Unfortunately from there, Tulane wouldn't be able to keep pace with the top seed and Cincinnati took the first set 25-20.

There were seven ties within the first 18 points of the second set, as the next frame was much closer to start. After Cincinnati tied the set at 7-7, Tulane got a kill from Kristen Thompson and a block from Dinkins and Burcescu to take a two-point lead and go up 9-7. But after that Cincinnati rattled off five straight to go up 12-9 to get back out in front.

Tulane was able to cut the deficit to just a single point after a block from Green and Douglas made the score 14-13, but from there Cincinnati rattled off the next three and closed out the set on a 11-4 run to go up 2-0 with a 25-17 victory.

Looking to stave off elimination Tulane found pockets of solid play early on, as trailing 5-4 the Green Wave got points from Dinkins, Cincinnati attack error and Green to go up 7-5. Tulane would be able to hold off the Bearcats for a little while, but the opposition eventually started to gobble up pairs of points and eventually tied the set at 9-9.

There would be four more ties until the Bearcats broke free from the last one at 12-all and used a 9-3 run to go up 21-15. All Tulane could do was hold serve before Cincinnati got to the finish line and claimed the match with a 25-19 win.

Tulane will now wait to see its postseason destination next week as the regular season comes to a close next Saturday.

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

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