Tulsa Volleyball Wins Third Straight Tournament, Defeats La. Tech in Four

Saturday, September 17

Reynolds Center

7:00 p.m.

Tulsa

11-1

LA Tech

8-6

Louisiana Tech

Tulsa

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Volleyball Wins Third Straight Tournament, Defeats La. Tech in Four

9/17/2016 10:07:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Riley Ubben

TULSA, Okla. –– The University of Tulsa Volleyball team won their third consecutive weekend tournament title and ninth straight match on Saturday evening, defeating Louisiana Tech in four sets at the Tulsa Volleyball Invitational, 3-1. Tulsa (11-1 overall) saw four different players reach double-digit attacks on the evening.

"I thought we didn't play our best volleyball, but we did find ways to come up with big plays when we needed it," said Head Coach Ryan Wills. "We have to refine some stuff, especially offensively. Defensively, we did what we do most of the time, but we have to find a way to be a little bit more productive and more efficient on the offensive side."

Tulsa need late pushes in the first two sets to grab a 2-0 lead in the match. The first set saw a match-high seven lead changes, but none before TU took a 10-7 advantage behind a Erica Bohannon kill. Louisiana Tech gained their first lead of the frame after consecutive Angela Papach kills to go ahead 17-16.Tulsa tied things up after a Louisiana Tech error at 19-19 before a Bohannon kill and Reeve ace put TU ahead 21-19. The Lady Techsters would tie the match back up once again at 21-21 before another Bohannon kill followed by a Trinity Alualu kill off the Louisiana Block brought it to 23-21. Haley Coulter brought the set to set-point with one of her four kills in the opening frame before Bohannon's sixth of the set sealed a 25-23 win.

Down 15-12, the Hurricane put together a 5-0 run on their way to taking their first lead of the set. Jaime Rahilly and Alualu teamed up for back-to-back blocks before Rachel Moore gave TU a two-point lead with consecutive service aces. TU put together another quick run with the matched tied at 18-18 to grab a 21-18 advantage with the help of a Rahilly block and kill as Tulsa went on to take the set 25-19.

The third match saw scoring runs from both sides as TU used a 5-0 run to grab a 9-6 lead, taking advantage of three straight Louisiana Tech errors. The Lady Techsters responded with a 5-0 run to go ahead 13-11 before another 5-0 run later in the set put them up 19-13. The Hurricane bounced back, scoring six of the next eight points to bring themselves within two, 24-22 before a TU service error after a Louisiana Tech timeout sealed the set at 25-22.

Reeve served two straight aces to tie the score at 4-4 early in the fourth set. TU extended their lead to two behind two Alualu kills before kills from Coulter and Rahilly forced Louisiana Tech into taking a timeout at 11-7. Coulter later jumpstarted a 3-0 run and pushed the TU lead to seven with another one of her career-high 13 kills, 16-9. Reeve's fourth a final ace of the evening extended the Hurricane lead to 10 before two Alualu kills sealed the match for TU, 25-14.

Bohannon led Tulsa with a match-high 16 kills while Reeve and Alualu both added double-digit kills. Mariah Pardo and Ashton Anderson pitched in 24 and 22 assists respectively while Brooke Berryhill anchored the defense with 26 digs.

The Hurricane wrapped up non-conference play with an 11-1 record and three tournament titles (Creeds & Crests Classic, A-State Invitational, Tulsa Volleyball Invitational) and will begin conference play against preseason American Athletic Conference favorite Cincinnati at the Reynolds Center on Thursday Sept. 22 at 7 p.m.

"If you look at the whole non-conference picture, I'm just really proud of how we played," said Wills. "We played some really good teams. We were challenged, and every time this team was presented a challenge, they stepped up. We weren't perfect, but we found a way to be successful most of the time, and more than anything, I'm just really proud of how hard they're playing and how they fight right now."

All-Tournament Team
Erica Bohannon, Tulsa - MVP
Brooke Berryhill, Tulsa
Trinity Alualu, Tulsa
Marta Monne, Louisiana Tech
Hannah Wright, Louisiana Tech
Laura Milos, Oral Roberts

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