Tulsa
Boise State- WAC Championships
Volleyball Team Qualifies for Quarterfinals of WAC Tournament
11/16/2001 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 16, 2001
San Jose, Calif. - Not all started well for the University of Tulsa volleyball squad on Thursday night, as the Golden Hurricane prepared to face the Broncos of Boise State in the first round othe 2001 Western Athletic Conference Tournament in San Jose, Calif. Tulsa came back from a 2-1 deficit to win 3-2 (30-21, 27-30, 23-30, 30-25, 15-10). The victory, TU's first ever in a WAC tournament, advances the Hurricane to Friday's quarterfinal action. Up next for TU will be No. 11-ranked and top seeded Hawai'i.
TU lost two players in pregame warm-ups, with senior Nele Digneffe spraining an ankle when she landed on someone else's foot and junior Amber Martin fractured her thumb. Once the match started, things did not get any better for the Hurricane as senior Kara Hidinger suffered a concussion. She would return to the match and see action in all five games.
Tulsa scored first in the opening game and never gave up that lead breaking out to a 13-4 lead. The Hurricane used a 16-13 advantage in kills for a 30-21 victory. The second game was a slightly different story, as no team could pull away. The largest lead for either team would be four points, with the Broncos winning 30-27.
In the third game, BSU took advantage of TU miscues. With the game tied at 13-13, a TU service error followed be a kill and consecutive service aces helped Boise State to gain the momentum. The Broncos would win 30-23.
It was TU's turn to take advantage of miscues in the fourth game. Again with the game tied at 13-13, back-to-back kills by Kristin Bailey and consecutive attack errors by BSU gave TU a lead it would not extinguish in the 30-25 win.
In only its second five-game match of the season, Tulsa scored early with a 3-0 lead. The Golden Hurricane then crusied to a 15-10 victory in the deciding game while holding BSU to a .091 hitting percentage for the game.
The match was TU's longest of the season taking 2:22, as the Golden Hurricane are now 2-0 in five-game matches this season. Tulsa's only other five-game match was a 3-2 victory over Stetson in the College of Charleston Tournament.
Tulsa impoves to 9-14 on the season, while Boise State ends the season 1-23 overall.
