Tulsa
Rice
Tulsa Retains Top Spot with Win Over Rice
10/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 29, 2006
Houston, Texas - The University of Tulsa volleyball squad capped off its road schedule with a 3-2 (29-31, 30-25, 25-30, 30-24, 15-7) win over Rice in Houston. Tulsa improves to 23-6 on the season, 10-3 in Conference USA play. The Hurricane is currently tied with Marshall for the top spot in the C-USA standings.
Junior Kassiana Urnau led a trio of Hurricane hitters with double-figure kill performances, with 25 kills. Senior Germana Hilario finished with 21 kills, while junior Fabiola Nepomuceno also contributed 13 kills. Junior Julia Silva was also one of three TU players to post double-doubles, with 55 assists and 29 digs. Urnau and Hilario recorded 25 and 11 digs apiece. Sophomore Kelsey Wood led TU with 35 digs.
The Hurricane posted 10 aces in the match, the seventh time this season TU has reached double-figures. Nepomuceno led the team with four aces, with Urnau and Hilario added two apiece as well. Sophomore Malorey Grove and Wood also added one ace respectively.
The first game of the match opened well for the Hurricane, as TU posted a 9-4 lead in the opening moments of the contest. After an Urnau kill, TU led the game 20-9. That is when Rice started to mount a comeback. The Owls scored 22 of the next 31 points to win the game. Back-to-back service aces by Rice's Nataie Bogan, her only two of the match, tied the game 26-26. A kill by Nepomuceno gave TU a 29-28 lead, however a pair of kills and an attack error allowed Rice to score the final three points. It was the first time Rice led the game.
Rice continued to use its momentum to score the first three points of the second contest, however one of Hilario's two aces on the afternoon tied the score at 9-9. It was one of six ties in the contest. After the teams traded points, with neither team taking more than a one-point lead, Tulsa was able to establish a 22-18 margin thanks to back-to-back hitting errors. Silva finished off the contest with a kill to send TU into the break with a split.
The third stanza was much like the second, with seven ties and four lead changes. An Urnau kill pulled TU within 13-12, however a TU service error on the subsequent serve, gave Rice the lead for good. The Owls used a 4-0 run to extend its lead to 21-15 to take a 2-1 lead into the fourth game.
Tulsa has not fared well in fourth games this season, winning only three of the nine it has played. The fourth game posted the most ties of any of the previous three, with eight ties. Nepomuceno stole the show for TU in the stanza, with eight of her 13 kills. Grove and Wood also posted aces as TU forced a fifth and deciding game.
For Tulsa, it was fourth fifth stanza of the season, while Rice was a bit more experienced with 13 fifth-game matches under its belt.
TU drew first blood in the final game on a kill by Hilario, however Rice would tie the game on the next series. Tied 2-2,the Hurricane would post a 6-0 run thanks in part to a pair of aces from Nepomuceno. TU extended its lead to 13-5 on an ace by Urnau followed by an Urnau kill. A ball handling error by Rice gave the Hurricane the final margin.
TU returns to the friendly confines of the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Saturday, Nov. 4 with a 2 p.m. match against SMU. The Hurricane close out the regular season with home matches against Rice on Nov. 10 and Houston on Nov. 12.
