Nov. 14, 2009
DALLAS - Three players totaled 13 or more kills and four players had 15 or more digs to lead The University of Tulsa to a 3-1 win (27-25, 25-22, 16-25, 25-21) at Conference USA rival SMU Saturday evening at Moody Coliseum.
The Golden Hurricane (24-6, 13-3 C-USA) matched its best C-USA record since joining the conference in 2005, and locked up the No. 2 seed for the C-USA Championship next weekend, Nov. 20-22 in Houston. Head coach Ed Allen earned his 100th victory in his fourth season at Tulsa.
Freshman Tyler Henderson tallied 17 kills and five blocks, while junior Hannah Stout had 13 kills and four blocks. Senior Jennifer Eichler recorded 15 kills, 15 digs and five blocks for her 12th double-double of the season. Sophomore Kelsey Hancock got a career-high 20 digs and eight kills.
Freshman Jessica Adams recorded 23 digs, while freshman Shelbi Pitcher tallied 19 digs. Sophomore Rachel Vukson recorded 28 assists, and freshman Jordan Clampitt contributed 23 assists.
Defense ruled the night, as the two teams combined for 32 blocks and 185 digs, and both hit under .120 in the match. The Golden Hurricane hit .113 (60-37-204) with 60 kills, 57 assists, 97 digs and 12 blocks. SMU (19-11, 9-7 C-USA) hit .117 as a team (47-26-180) with 47 kills, 44 assists, 88 digs and 20 blocks.
"We were fortunate to beat a very talented SMU team that is playing very well and has played very well at home all year," Allen said. "We were very fortunate to pull it out. We played extremely mentally tough throughout the match. We had a few breakdowns in game three, but came out strong in game four. SMU is a very good team and should play very tough in the tournament next weekend."
Set one featured 13 ties and eight leads changes, as the battle raged to a 27-25 TU win. Each team's largest lead was three points - Tulsa led 9-6 early on, while SMU led 23-20. Behind three points, the Golden Hurricane scored four in a row to move ahead 24-23, but SMU tied it at 24 apiece, and went ahead 25-24. The Hurricane then scored three straight to win the set, aided by an SMU setting error, a service ace by Pitcher and a kill by Hancock.
Tulsa came from behind to win the second set after falling behind by six points as late at 18-12. SMU broke a 7-7 tie to sprint out to a 14-8 lead. The Golden Hurricane closed the gap to three points at 15-12, but the Mustangs scored three in a row to take an 18-12 lead. However, TU went on a 9-1 run to take a 21-19 lead than it never lost. The Hurricane outscored SMU 4-3 to win the set, 25-22.
SMU won the third set, 25-16, after jumping out to an 8-3 lead. The Mustangs extended their lead to 14-7 and led by as much as nine, which was also the final margin.
Tulsa scored the first four points, and never lost its lead in set four. The Golden Hurricane led by five at 7-2 before SMU came back to within one at 11-10. However, the Hurricane moved ahead again, 16-11, and only let the Mustangs within three points, as it cruised on to a 25-21 victory.
Tulsa will open the C-USA Championship as the No. 2 seed against the No. 7 Seed UAB at 2 p.m. Friday. The Championship is being played at Rice. TU is paired with third-seeded Tulane and sixth-seeded SMU, which open the tournament at noon Friday.
Admission to all TU home volleyball matches is free. For all Tulsa volleyball news and information, visit www.TulsaHurricane.com. Follow Tulsa Athletics on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TulsaHurricane. Become a fan of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane page on Facebook - search "Tulsa Golden Hurricane."
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