Tulsa Makes Impression in First Year of Conference USA
5/30/2006 12:00:00 AM | Tulsa Hurricane
May 30, 2006
Tulsa, Oklahoma - The University of Tulsa officially became a member of Conference USA on July 1, and as the league season came to a close this past weekend, it was clearly evident that the Tulsa Golden Hurricane made a huge impact as a first-year member.
Tulsa and Rice shared the lead for most conference titles this year with four apiece. TU teams won conference championships in the sports of football, women's basketball, men's tennis and softball. Rice won titles in cross country, women's soccer, women's tennis and baseball.
Tulsa captured the football championship, first winning the West Division title, then defeating UCF in the Conference USA Football Championship Game. The Hurricane was picked to place fourth in the six-team West Division, but put together a 6-2 league record including wins over the only three East Division schools on the Tulsa schedule.
Tulsa went on to play in the 2005 AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
Despite suffering through a tough regular season, the Tulsa men's soccer team advanced to the championship game of the C-USA Soccer Tournament, but dropped a 1-0 decision to South Carolina.
Picked to finish in fifth-place in preseason polls, the Tulsa women's basketball team, just like the football team, proved that preseason predictions are not good indicators as to what can happen on the playing field.
The Golden Hurricane women had a record-setting season by posting a school-best 26-6 record and a 13-3 Conference USA mark. Tulsa was atop the C-USA standings by two games, and received the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship for the first time in school history by winning the conference tournament.
The Tulsa men's tennis team hosted the Conference USA Championships at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. In the title match against Rice, the Hurricane won four straight singles matches after losing the doubles point to post a 4-1 victory for the first league title in tennis since 1996 when Tulsa won the Missouri Valley Conference crown.
A week later, the TU women's softball team received the No. 1 seed at the C-USA Softball Tournament, held at the Donna J. Hardesty Sports Complex Softball Field. In second round action, Tulsa used three solo home runs to put the game in extra innings and won the contests 4-3 against East Carolina in the bottom of the 10th inning on an infield hit.
Tulsa lost a 1-0 decision to Marshall in winners bracket play, defeated Houston 1-0 in the semifinals on a one-hitter by senior pitcher Maren Genow, then Tulsa claimed a 3-0 win in the championship game against Marshall on a three-run homer by freshman Brooke Smart in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs.
Tulsa looks forward to its second year as a member of Conference USA.
