Huge Fifth Set Propels Green Wave to Comeback Victory

Sunday, September 11

Santa Clara, CA

Noon

Tulane University

5-4,0-0AAC

Santa Clara University

3-6,0-0WCC

Tulane

Santa Clara

Photo by: Samantha Larsen

Huge Fifth Set Propels Green Wave to Comeback Victory

Sep 11, 2022 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Samantha Larsen

SANTA CLARA, Ca. – The Tulane Volleyball team thwarted four fourth-set match points and blitzed host Santa Clara in the fifth to pull off a rousing 3-2 (25-22, 16-25, 15-25, 28-26, 15-9) comeback victory over the host Broncos Sunday afternoon in the Leavey Center.

Tulane improved to 5-4 overall with the win, while Santa Clara dropped to 3-6.

The Green Wave had four players with double digit kills (Mackenzie Martin-17, Amarachi Osuji-14, Melissa Kolurbasi-13 and Kayla Kaiser-10), while setter Kate Van Houten added 50 assists and libero Jillian Dits led the way with 25 digs. Sophia Ervanian also recorded 12 digs on the defensive end.

Julia Sangiacomo had 27 kills to lead Santa Clara and Kat Georgiadis posted 31 digs, defensively.

The match was played at an extremely high level, as the hosts hit .386 to Tulane's .284. Kolurbasi and Kaiser combined to hit .442 for the Green Wave in 52 swings.

Tulane was in deep trouble in the fourth set, facing a 24-22 deficit, before a kill by Martin and an ace by Van Houten evened the affair at 24-all.

Kolurbasi registered kills to tie it twice more at 25 and 26 before Osuji hammered back-to-back terminations to push the contest into a fifth set.

In the final stanza, Osuji got another kill and Van Houten another ace to give the visitors a 3-1 lead that it wound not relinquish. The advantage grew to as many as eight (14-6) before Kolurbasi's kill put the finishing touches on the Tulane triumph.

The Green Wave returns to Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse for the Tulane Invitational for matches against Oregon State (11 a.m.) and LSU (6:30 p.m.) on 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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