Tulsa
Rice
Golden Hurricane Volleyball Earns Share of C-USA Title
11/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 10, 2006
Tulsa, Okla. - The University of Tulsa won not only a volleyball a Conference USA match on Friday night, the Golden Hurricane also won at least a share of the 2006 C-USA Title. TU defeated Rice, 3-2 (30-14, 24-30, 23-30, 30-18, 15-8), for the second time this season. Tulsa improves to 25-6, 12-3 on the year. The Hurricane has a full-game lead over Marshall in the C-USA standings, with one match left for each school.
Senior Germana Hilario led the Hurricane attack with 17 kills, as four TU players reached double-figures. Junior Julia Silva posted her third triple-double of the season with 11 kills, 42 assists and 17 digs. Junior Kassiana Urnau also posted a double-double with 13 kills and 14 digs, while senior Amy Meyer finished with 10 kills.
Tulsa scored the first three points of the opening contest and never looked back, posting a .520 hitting percentage for the game. Junior Julia Silva and senior Germana Hilario both recorded four kills apiece for the Hurricane. However, the biggest help came from sophomore Malorey Grove behind the service line. Grove recorded six aces in the game, including four in a row, as TU went on a 12-0 run. The Owls had just cut the score to 9-8. When Grove finished and the dust settled, TU was up 21-8.
The second game of the contest was nearly the exact opposite for the Hurricane. TU finished the game with 10 kills and 11 errors for a negative hitting percentage (-.028). Even with the poor hitting percentage, Tulsa still held a 21-16 lead. The Owls used eight TU attack errors and a pair of reception errors to forge a 14-3 run for the final margin.
The third stanza started out like the first two, with TU scoring first. Tulsa even opened a 20-15 lead after a kill by Urnau. However the error bug struck once again. Rice scored the next seven points all on TU errors, five attack errors and two reception errors. A kill by senior Ivana Krejcirova stopped the run, followed by a Rice error, tying the game at 22-22. Rice finished the game with an 8-1 run, thanks in large part to four blocks.
Much like the previous three games, the Hurricane scored first, blowing out to an early 3-0 lead. Another Urnau kill extended the lead to 12-6. Back-to-back errors gave TU a familiar lead at the 20-point turn, 21-14. Tulsa was able to keep its focus by outscoring the Owls, 9-4 down the stretch. With TU up 24-17, junior Fabiola Nepomuceno served six straight times, including back-to-back service aces, putting TU up 28-18. Silva's 11 kill of the match and a Rice attacking error squared the match 2-2, and gave Tulsa the momentum back.
In the final stanza, Tulsa scored first, yet again. Rice bounced back to score two points to tie the game 2-2. After the squads traded points, Tulsa made a 3-0 run for a 6-3 lead on a pair of Urnau kills. The Hurricane would not relinquish the lead again. After an Owl timeout, Rice closed the gap to 6-4 with a kill, then again at 8-6. However that will be the closest RU could get. Three Hilario kills closed out the match for TU.
The win puts the Hurricane up a full game over second place Marshall in the C-USA standings. TU will earn the top-seed in next week's C-USA Championship, thanks to win over the Thundering Herd earlier this season. Marshall will play East Carolina on Saturday to close out the season. Tulsa will close out its regular season with a 1 p.m. match with Houston at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Sunday. A Tulsa win or a Marshall loss will give the Golden Hurricane the regular season title outright.
