Volleyball Opens Season With Pair of Sweeps Friday

Friday, August 30

Lafayette, LA

11 AM

Tulane University

1-0

UTEP

0-1

Tulane

UTEP

Photo by: Cloe Poisson

Volleyball Opens Season With Pair of Sweeps Friday

Aug 30, 2019 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

LAFAYETTE, La. – The Tulane volleyball team fought past a scrappy University of Incarnate Word Cardinals side Friday afternoon to finish the day with a pair of sweeps as the Green Wave won by consecutive scores of 25-21 to end day one at the Doubletree Classic hosted by Louisiana-Lafayette.

Tulane (2-0) produced its second strong offensive showing of the day, hitting .286 as a team over the course of the three sets to power past the Cardinals (1-1) and go into Saturday's finale with a chance to claim the tournament championship.

Sophomore Kayla Dinkins was one of two Tulane players to finish the day with double-digit kills, hitting .500 on the afternoon with 11 kills and a block. Erika Hansel added 10 of her own to finish with an average of .250.

Five different Tulane players finished with no less than five kills in the match when you add in Lexie Douglas' nine, Markenzie Benoit's eight and Yvette Burcescu's five. Douglas and Benoit also combined for four blocks having two each.

Junior Jenna Ibieta served up 23 assists in the win for the Green Wave, finishing just short of earning a double-double with seven digs.

Kaylie McHugh finished the match with 14 digs for Tulane, followed by Makala Heidelberg who had 10 for her second double figure dig match of the day Friday.

The Cardinals proved to be up for the challenge in a clash of winners Friday afternoon, as the first set saw 14 ties and seven lead changes throughout the first 36 points of the opener. With the score knotted at 18-all, a solo block from Benoit gave Tulane the lead back and was followed by a Hansel kill and put-away from Benoit to force UIW into its final timeout down 21-19.

That small run allowed Tulane to put enough distance between themselves and the Cardinals, as UIW would be able to claw to within two of the Green Wave, but that would be it as their drive stalled at the 21-point mark with a Dinkins kill ending the set in favor of Tulane at 25-21.

The second set was interesting in spurts, as Tulane was able to start strong and jut out to a 7-3 lead early. Slowly, UIW began to find pockets of offense to pull closer to Tulane throughout eventually cutting a 14-9 Green Wave lead to just a 14-13 one.

A three-point swing capped by a ball-handling error for UIW gave Tulane a bit of breathing room for a short time leading 17-14. Getting two more points out of the break to push the lead to six, two points would be the shortest lead for Tulane in the frame as the team went on to hit .323 in the set and roll to another 25-21 set victory.

With the match in sight, Tulane opened the third by outscoring UIW 8-2 over the course of the first 10 points. A kill from Heidelberg got Tulane to the to the 10-point mark shortly after, but after Tulane went up by six after a service error to make it 12-6, the Cardinals got three of the next four to cut the Tulane lead to 13-10.

The Cardinals got a kill to make it a 14-11 game, but a 4-0 run capped by a Heidelberg kill forced UIW into its final timeout as Tulane took an 18-11 lead.

However, UIW refused to quit and made things close late by outscoring Tulane 9-3 to pull to within one at 21-20. A kill from Hansel pushed the lead to 22-20, as Nicole Levine came on and served up an ace to push the lead to 23-20. Hansel came back with another kill and after an error, Dinkins put away a pass from Taylor Henigsman to end the match and clinch the sweep.

Match 1: Tulane 3, UTEP 0

In the opening match of the 2019 campaign, the Tulane Green Wave earned an efficient 3-0 sweep of the UTEP Miners Friday morning 25-11, 25-18, 25-18 at Earl K. Long Gym.

The Green Wave (1-0) never trailed at any point during the match and hit a blistering .357 as a team while holding the Miners (0-1) to a .057 clip.

Sophomore Yvette Burcescu led all players with nine kills in the match, finishing with a .615 hitting percentage against UTEP. Erika Hansel and Kayla Dinkins combined for eight kills each, with the senior hitting .538 while the sophomore hit .583. The duo also powered the team's 10 total blocks at the net with Hansel having five, with two on the solo end, while Dinkins had four with a solo block.

Amanda Giardina led the setters with 19 assists, followed by Jenna Ibieta's 11. Makala Heidelberg had 15 digs to lead all players in the match, adding five kills and an ace.

The Green Wave came out hot in the first set, hitting .417 as a group with 13 kills to just three errors. Douglas and Benoit paced the team with three each, followed by Dinkins and Burcescu with two.

With Tulane leading 7-5, the Miners hit into an error and it ignited a 6-1 run for the Wave, with the team going on top 13-6. A UTEP kill to make it a 13-7 game would be the final point for a while for the opposition, as a Benoit kill kickstarted an 8-0 run to put the Green Wave up 21-7.

Tulane only needed to hold serve enough, and did, getting a Heidelberg kill to put the first set away 25-11.

UTEP rallied in the second set, proving to push Tulane early in knotting the set at 4-4. However, a four-point swing which included two of Dinkins' four kills in the set, pushed the Tulane lead to four and forced a Miner timeout, with another Green Wave point after the break making it 9-4.

The closest UTEP would get to Tulane for the rest of the set was a single point, coming at 14-13 in favor of Tulane after a Miner kill. Still, Tulane would go on to outscore UTEP 6-3 over the next nine points to take a 20-16 lead and would not look back from there going on to take the two-set lead with a 25-18 victory.

The third set proved to be Tulane's best, opening the set with a 7-0 run from the jump to set the tone quickly. Not much further along, the Green Wave would be up 17-7 following a Taylor Henigsman-assisted kill for Heidelberg.

UTEP put a dent into the Tulane lead with a five-point swing of their own, but kills from Benoit, Hansel and Burcescu around a UTEP score put Tulane on the brink of the victory up 20-13.

The other side would not be able to find the spark to make it a match, as Tulane went on to get the points it needed to see out the match, winning 25-18.

Tulane will close out the Doubletree Classic on Saturday, taking on the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns at 12:30 p.m. in Lafayette.

Single-game and season 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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