Sept. 10, 2010

TULSA, Okla. - Tyler Henderson totaled 34 kills and 18 digs, and Hannah Stout had 18 kills to lead The University of Tulsa volleyball to sweeps of Arkansas State and Lamar Friday in the Radisson Tulsa Airport Invitational at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

The Golden Hurricane (6-2) beat Arkansas State, 25-16, 25-17, 25-14, and defeated Lamar, 25-19, 25-14, 25-14 to win its second straight tournament and fifth straight match by sweep.

"I was really pleased with both matches, in terms of our defense," Tulsa head coach Ed Allen said. "We're blocking the ball a lot better. For the last five matches in particular, we have definitely had a better blocking effort, which strengthens our defense. We played at a pretty consistent level both offensively and defensively. I thought we served the ball really well in both matches. Not only did we limit some service errors, but we held both teams to under a 2.0 passing performance, which means they had barely two (attack) options on a consistent basis. That, again, plays into allowing us to block come balls."

Jordan Clampitt totaled 71 assists in the two matches, while Jessica Adams tallied 23 digs. Henderson had 18 kills and 11 digs in the match against Lamar for her first double-double of the season.

"I'm really pleased again with the offensive performance, getting a solid performance out of Hannah and Tyler," Allen said. "This weekend we saw El (Elizabeth Kale) step up and have a much better offensive performance against both Arkansas State and Lamar. I'm really pleased that we got a chance to play a lot of people and reward those people for their hard work over the course of the last month - players that don't normally get an opportunity to get in like Caitlin Dyche, Stephanie Heim and Shelbi Pitcher."

The Hurricane's evening match against Lamar featured a loud and boisterous crowd, due to the large support of campus fraternities, family members, friends and other TU student-athletes. The morning match was also thrilling to the crowd as, on TU Volleyball Youth Day, the Golden Hurricane received support from local elementary school students who had an opportunity to receive autographs from the players after the match.

"The atmosphere was huge," said Allen. "We alluded to that yesterday (in the tournament preview), that we though the fraternity guys would get in here and make some noise. I think it was probably one of the most exciting matches we played here in the Reynolds Center. I feel the support from them is just continuing to grow, and I think as the season goes on we're going to find this to be a difficult place for people to come in to play."

Tulsa 3, Arkansas State 0

Tulsa defeated Arkansas State, 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-14) Friday afternoon.

Tyler Henderson led the Golden Hurricane with 16 kills, while Hannah Stout had 11 kills and hit .550 and Elizabeth Kale hit .364 with five kills. Jessica Adams led TU with 17 digs and Jordan Clampitt had 38 assists in the match. Kellie Culbertson added 11 digs and Kelsey Hancock hit .312 with seven kills.

As a team, the Golden Hurricane hit .226 (43-17-115) with 43 kills, 42 assists, three service aces, 57 digs and 6.0 blocks. Arkansas State hit .009 (25-24-111) with 25 kills, 21 assists, one ace, 47 digs and 4.5 blocks.

Tulsa took a 4-1 lead to open the first set, and extended the advantage to 12-6, and with six of the next eight points, held an 18-8 lead. The Red Wolves got within seven points at 22-15, but TU took three of the next four points to win, 25-16.

The Golden Hurricane fell behind in the second set, 9-4,but fought back to tie the score at 10 apiece. TU then took a 12-10 lead and never trailed the rest of the way as it outscored Arkansas State, 15-7, after knotting the score, to win the set, 25-17.

Tulsa left no doubt in set three, taking a 6-2 lead, which expanded to a 14-7 advantage. The Hurricane took the lead to 19-9, and with a 21-14 advantage, scored the final four points to win, 25-14.

Tulsa 3, Lamar 0

The Golden Hurricane earned its fifth straight sweep with a, 25-19, 25-14, 25-14, win over Lamar Friday evening in front of 549 raucous fans.

Tyler Henderson led the way with 18 kills and bounced back with a .483 hitting percentage, adding 11 digs for her first double-double of the season. For the second time Friday, Hannah Stout hit .500, with seven kills against Lamar. Jordan Clampitt added 33 assists and Jessica Adams had five service aces to go with five digs. Elizabeth Kale tallied five blocks and four kills and Kellie Culbertson had five digs and five kills.

Tulsa hit .239 (37-15-92) with 37 kills, 34 assists, seven service aces, 38 digs and a season-high 9.0 blocks, while Lamar hit .082 (30-22-97) with 30 kills, 26 assists, 30 digs and 9.0 blocks.

Full recap of Tulsa vs. Lamar

The Golden Hurricane returns to action next weekend when it travels to Fargo, N.D., for the North Dakota State Tournament. TU plays Friday at 1 p.m. against South Dakota and at 7 p.m. against North Dakota State, and Saturday at 2 p.m. against South Dakota State.

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