Volleyball Opens League Play With win Over Memphis in Five

Friday, September 27

New Orleans, La.

7 PM

Tulane University

11-3, 1-0American

Memphis

11-2, 0-1American

Memphis

Tulane

Photo by: Niamh Brennan

Volleyball Opens League Play With win Over Memphis in Five

Sep 27, 2019 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Tulane volleyball team began American Athletic Conference play on Friday night with a heart-stopping win over the Memphis Tigers in five sets, 25-12, 25-21, 23-25, 22-25, 16-14 inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.

After controlling the first two sets, Tulane (11-3, 1-0 The American) withstood a revitalized Memphis (11-2, 0-1) squad that pulled out the next two sets and pushed the Green Wave throughout the duration of an exciting fifth.

"Credit Memphis for coming back. We really dominated the first two sets, but going into the third we talked as a team that Memphis was dangerous and had nothing to lose so they were going to give everything they had," head coach Jim Barnes said. "They turned it on us. They got the momentum, balls started falling their way, calls started going their way and we had to really fight and stick together to get it back on top."

Lexie Douglas finished the night leading all players with 18 kills and hit .378 with 10 digs, two aces and an assist. Makala Heidelberg finished with 12 kills and also netted 17 digs with two assists and three blocks, while Lauryn Green hit .409 and had 11 kills and three blocks.

Jenna Ibieta had 25 assists for the Green Wave and had 12 digs, while Amanda Giardina had 23 assists and nine digs. Kayla Dinkins had seven blocks and had seven kills, as Tulane finished the match with 11 blocks as a team.

Kaylie McHugh had 20 digs for the Green Wave, finishing just two shy of the match high, while adding five assists.

Tulane opened the match on a strong start, going on a 5-0 run to force Memphis into an early timeout. The Green Wave were aided by a trio of Memphis attacking errors, while getting a pair of kills from Douglas before the Tigers got their first point.

The Wave rattled off 10 of the first 12 points of the match to take a sizeable lead over the visitors, as a 3-0 run for Tulane forced Memphis into using its second timeout trailing the Green Wave 13-4. Memphis went on its best rally after Tulane pushed the lead to double-digits, going on a three-point swing to make the score 14-7.

However, the opposition found it tough to get anything else going from there, as Tulane closed out the opening set 11-5 and finished the frame hitting .433 as a squad to take it 25-12.

Memphis opened the second set better than in the first taking the first two points and four of the first six, but Tulane wouldn't get rattled as the squad earned each of the next five points in succession to go from down 4-2 to leading 7-4.

Memphis kept it close taking three of the next four to pull within one at 8-7, but that would be the closest the Tigers would get for a while as the Green Wave went on to score seven of the next 10 points as Memphis called a timeout trailing Tulane 15-10.

The gap widened as Tulane took the first point out of the break on an unforced error, and after a Tigers point the team got kills from Dinkins and Yvette Burcescu along with a Memphis attack error to force Memphis into another timeout with Tulane leading 19-11.

Memphis was able to put together a solid rally after the second break getting 10 points by the time the set ended, but the lead for the Green Wave proved to be too much to overcome as Tulane claimed the second set 25-21.

The start of the third set proved to be the closest and tightly contested of the previous two, as the two sides played to four ties and three lead changes within the first 18 points. After a Green kill to put Tulane up 9-8, Memphis came back with a kill to tie the set at 9-9. But after that, Tulane used a 3-0 run to push the Tigers into a timeout leading 12-9.

The Tigers didn't wilt under the pressure, scoring four consecutive points out of the timeout to go up 13-12 and push Tulane into using a timeout. Memphis scored three of the next four out of the break and a 7-1 run in all forced the Wave to call their second timeout trailing the Tigers 17-13.

Tulane did everything it could to chip away at the Tiger lead, getting as close as a point late, but Memphis forced a fourth set by taking the third 25-23.

After both sides traded the opening four points of the fourth, Memphis rattled off four to go up 6-2 in the frame with Tulane calling a timeout. The Tigers scored three of the next four to go up 9-3 over the Green Wave, but Tulane answered back with four points to cut the deficit to just two down 9-7 with Memphis calling a timeout.

Memphis went on a 7-3 run out of the timeout to take a 16-10 lead over Tulane, but the Green Wave scored three-straight as the Tigers called their final timeout to try and stop the rally. Instead, it left the visitors without a stopper when it was needed, as Tulane outscored Memphis 9-2 to battle back and take the lead at 19-18.

Tulane took the lead once more going up 20-19, but Memphis was in control from there as they scored the next two to go up 21-20, allowing Tulane to tie the set at 21 for the final time as the Tigers went on to take the fourth 25-22.

Neither side fielded a lead bigger than a single point through the early goings of the final set, with four ties and two lead changes throughout the first eight points. Breaking the 4-4 deadlock was a kill from Green and a Memphis attack error to put the Tulane lead to 6-4 and force a Tiger timeout.

Tulane capitalized on the momentum and after Memphis recorded a point the Green Wave took the next three and went up 9-5, but the Tigers refused to quit, and Tulane had a to call a timeout after a 3-0 run cut the lead to just one at 9-8.

The two sides traded each of the next nine points in succession, but with Tulane leading 14-12, Memphis scored back-to-back points to tie the fifth at 14-14 as Tulane used its final timeout. A wild point that had both sides covering the entire court, Douglas put one away between the back line to make it 15-14, coming back and doing the same to end the match and clinch the victory for Tulane at 16-14.

"I like how we matchup with SMU, but we're going to have to play better than we did tonight," Barnes said.

Tulane will be back in action on Sunday afternoon, taking on the Mustangs inside Fogelman in Devlin beginning at 1 p.m.

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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