Aug. 25, 2012

Box Score :|  Box Score

NORMAN, Okla. - The University of Tulsa volleyball squad defeated Missouri State in straight sets, but fell to the host school Oklahoma in a five-set thriller at the Nike Invitational on Saturday.

Tulsa (2-1) defeated the Bears for the first time in program history, as TU dropped the previous 16 meetings against MSU, but were unable to get its first-ever regular season victory at McCasland Field House against OU.

Against OU, Tyler Henderson scored 29 kills and Kellie Culbertson and Diana Silva each tallied double-doubles, but the Golden Hurricane fell to the Sooners in five sets, 25-23, 21-25, 25-22, 18-25, 12-15.

Henderson, who hit .300 in the match, and Jessica Adams, who led the Golden Hurricane with 25 digs, were selected to the Nike Invitational All-Tournament team.

Culbertson recorded 19 kills and 17 digs, while Silva had 14 kills and 15 digs. Jordan Clampitt picked up a double-double of her own with 46 assists and 10 digs, while Bailey Clampitt dished 22 assists with seven digs. The Hurricane totaled 77 kills and 84 digs in the match.

Oklahoma (3-0) was led by Kierra Holst, Morgan Reynolds and Keila Rodriguez, who each had 10 kills in the match.

The Golden Hurricane put up a .221 attack percentage, while the Sooners hit .212 and totaled 20.5 blocks as a team.

"We had to face a really good Oklahoma team on their home court, which is a place that we have never won before," Head Coach Steven McRoberts said. "We lost a heartbreaker in five, even though we practically dominated almost every statistical category except blocks. So it was disappointed, as we felt like we could win. Any result for us that was not winning was a disappointment, so we are leaving here disappointed. "

Tulsa hit .245 with 19 kills and 21 digs in the opening set. The trio of Henderson (six kills), Silva (five kills) and Culbertson (four kills) combined for 15 of those kills as Tulsa took home the first set 25-23.

TU fell behind in the seconds set, trailing by as much nine points at 20-11. The Hurricane, however, stormed back to pull within three points at 23-20. TU held the serve down 24-21, but the Sooners scored the final point to win set two, 25-21.

In the third stanza, action went back and forth as TU and OU were tied at 19 apiece. Culbertson collected a kill to give the Hurricane a lead they would never relinquish and added a service ace the next possession to make it a two-point game as Tulsa claimed the third set 25-22.

Tulsa jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the fourth set, but OU went on an 11-0 run to take a 14-7 advantage and claimed the frame 25-18.

Oklahoma ran out to a 7-1 lead in the fifth set and climbed out to an eight-point 12-4 advantage. With the score, 13-5, Tulsa went on a six-point run to close the gap to 13-11, but it was not enough in the end as OU won the fifth set, 15-12.

Tulsa 3, Missouri State 0

Against Missouri State, Kellie Culbertson collected 12 digs and 10 kills, while Tyler Henderson added 17 kills as The University of Tulsa volleyball squad swept Missouri State 25-22, 25-14 25-22 at the Nike Invitational

Culbertson, who had 14 digs and 10 kills last night, put up an attack percentage of .259 and also had three service aces on the match. Libero Jessica Adams added 16 digs, while Diana Silva recorded 12 digs and five kills. Senior Jordan Clampitt paced TU with 23 assists, while Bailey Clampitt tallied 13 assists.

As a squad, Tulsa had an attack percentage of .160 with 44 kills on 131 attempts, while Missouri State had a clip of .093 with 26 kills on 97 swings. The Bears out-blocked the Hurricane 9.0-7.0, and also tallied 57 digs compared to TU's 51 digs.

The first set saw 10 ties and five lead changes as TU went on to win the frame 25-22. Neither team hit the ball well as Tulsa's attack clip was .043, while MSU had an attack percentage of .028.

After a slow start in the second stanza which Tulsa had a narrow lead of 7-6, Tulsa took control of the match scoring 12 of the next 15 points to take a 19-9 lead. The Hurricane ultimately took the set 25-14, as the squad hit .314. Culbertson had six of 10 kills in the second frame, while Tyler Henderson tallied an attack clip of .444.

The third set was very similar to the first as neither team could gain control of the set as there were eight ties and six lead changes. After Missouri State took a 20-18 lead, the Hurricane stormed back to take a lead of 22-20 thanks to back to back kills by Miriele Gobbo and took home the match 25-22.

"I thought we were better at the net today, as we had a lot more quality touches at the net," McRoberts said. "This first weekend is a learning curve, I think we saw some things today that were good and also some things that we need to work on."

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