Volleyball Defeats HBU in Three Sets Saturday

Saturday, September 7

New Orleans, La.

2 PM

Tulane University

5-1

Houston Baptist

3-3

Houston Baptist

Tulane

Photo by: Parker Waters

Volleyball Defeats HBU in Three Sets Saturday

Sep 7, 2019 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Tulane volleyball team turned in another strong performance on Saturday in the 2019 Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Volleyball Classic and earned a sweep of the HBU Huskies 25-4, 25-21, 28-26.

The Green Wave (5-1) rode a .314 hitting percentage in the match to get a hot start offensively, finishing the contest with 44 kills paced by six players with four or more kills. HBU (3-3) found it tough to get anything going against Tulane, hitting -.021 as a team, with the Wave putting up eight blocks as a squad.

Junior Lexie Douglas led all players with 10 kills, hitting .333 with four digs and an assist. Erika Hansel had eight kills and hit .316, followed by Kayla Dinkins who had a .385 hitting clip with seven kills and a match-high seven blocks and Yvette Burcescu who also had seven and three blocks.

Jenna Ibieta led the setters with 16 assists, adding four digs and a service ace, while Amanda Giardina had 10 assists and three digs.

Kaylie McHugh led the match with 18 of the team's 45 digs, with Makala Heidelberg having seven digs, six kills and three blocks at the net.

Tulane got off to a scorching start to open the match against HBU, capturing the first four points in order getting two kills from Hansel, one from Dinkins and an attacking error from the Huskies. The Green Wave pulled 10 of the first 11 points of the opener, reaching double figures before HBU got its second point of the match with Tulane up 10-2.

The Wave closed out the set outscoring the Huskies 15-2, including going on a 10-1 run at one point to put a gulf between themselves and the Huskies, taking the opening set 25-4. Tulane finished the set hitting a staggering .632 for the set with 12 kills on just 19 swings, with three blocks as a group.

In the second set, Tulane was once again able to jump out to a sizeable early lead, as a block from Dinkins and Burcescu put the Wave lead at 7-2 after the first nine points. However, the Huskies were able to rally this time and took seven of the next nine points to tie the game for the first time at 9-9. After tying the set again at 10-10, the Huskies scored three of the four following points to take their first lead of the match up 31-11.

The opposition lead would be short lived as Tulane went on a 4-0 run to take a 15-13 lead over HBU. The set stayed close as a Tulane attacking error cut the lead to one at 15-14, but a five-point swing this time pushed the lead to 20-15. Houston Baptist was able to save off set point four times, but a kill from Green ended the set to put the Green Wave up two with the 25-21 set victory.

HBU had finally found some footing after the second set and that confidence spilled over into the third set as the Huskies were able to jump out to an early lead against Tulane and weather the Green Wave attack throughout. With a 7-5 lead for the visitors, the Green Wave got points from kills via Hansel and Green, with an HBU attack error capping the 3-0 run to give Tulane an 8-7 lead.

Tulane took the lead once more going up 10-9, but from there HBU countered with a three-point swing of their own to go on top 12-10, from there forcing Tulane to work to make a game of it for the rest of the set. Trailing by four points at 19-15, the Huskies were threatening to put the set away, but the Wave rallied in a big way, getting a pair of kills by dings, one from Douglas and an unforced HBU error to tie the game at 19-19.

HBU went back up by two at 21-19, but a kill from Dinkins and service ace from Taylor Henigsman tied the set again, with the Huskies producing consecutive attack errors to give Tulane the lead up 23-21. The two sides traded points as a Burcescsu kill put the Green Wave at match point up 24-23. Again, HBU fended off the final point three times leading to extra points, but after getting to 26-26 a kill from Meghan Doyle and HBU attack error ended the match to clinch it for Tulane.

Tulane will close out the Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Volleyball Classic on Sunday afternoon, taking on the Ole Miss Rebels at 1 p.m. at Fogelman in Devlin.

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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