Aug. 28, 2012

Box Score | Tulsa at Arkansas PDF

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., - The Tulsa volleyball squad dropped a 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-19) decision to the University of Arkansas on Tuesday night at Barnhill Arena.

The Golden Hurricane (2-2) have a quick turnaround as it will compete in the Kansas Invitational this Friday and Saturday in Lawrence, Kan., while the Razorbacks (4-0) have won all four of their home matches this season.

"I felt like we let a couple of opportunities get away from us in the first two sets," commented Head Coach Steven McRoberts. "Arkansas played a great match, especially on the defensive side of the ball."

TU was paced on the night by Tyler Henderson, who tallied 13 kills and an attack percentage of .273. Kellie Culbertson added 10 kills and five digs, while Diana Silva had 18 digs and 8 kills. Libero Jessica Adams, after being named the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week, collected 15 digs.

On the match, Tulsa attained an attack percentage of .145 (44-24-138) while Arkansas had a percentage of .295 (41-10-105). The Hurricane collected 51 digs compared to the Razorbacks' 65, and added 4.0 blocks compared to Arkansas's 8.5.

In the first set, Tulsa opened up a 8-3 advantage over Arkansas, but the Razorbacks came back to knot things at 10 apiece. After the score was tied at 13, Arkansas took six of the next seven points to lead 19-14 and went on to win 25-22. TU collected an attack percentage of .282, while Arkansas hit .414.

In the second stanza, Tulsa trailed 24-18, but stormed back taking the next four points before falling 25-22. Silva had five of her eight kills and eight of her 18 digs in the second set.

The third set started off close as the score was tied up at six, but Arkansas pulled away to win the third frame 25-18. Tulsa as a team hit .021, while Arkansas had an attack percentage of .273.

"Once again we made too many errors, especially in the third set when the match was on the line," McRoberts said. "We keep creating scenarios where we have to fight out of holes. We will come back tomorrow and prepare the Kansas Invitational this weekend. I still think we are going to be a good team in the near future. There are some things that we as coaches need to coach them better on and we need to our upperclassmen to step up as well to make that happen."

The Hurricane will hit the road Thursday for the Kansas Invitational. TU plays Arkansas State and Kansas on Friday, and Nebraska-Omaha on Saturday. The Hurricane will return home to face Oral Roberts on Tuesday, September 4 on the campus of Oral Roberts.

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