Tulsa Holds On to Defeat USF in Five on Thursday

Thursday, November 10

Reynolds Center

7:00 p.m.

Tulsa

18-9 (7-8AAC)

USF

16-11 (7-8AAC)

USF

Tulsa

Tulsa Holds On to Defeat USF in Five on Thursday

11/10/2016 10:00:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Riley Ubben

TULSA, Okla. –– The University of Tulsa Volleyball team held on in five sets (27-25, 25-22, 20-25, 16-25, 15-8) to defeat USF and win their fifth straight match on Thursday evening at the Reynolds Center. The Hurricane (18-9, 7-8 The American) took the opening two sets to head into the break up 2-0, but dropped the next before winning the fifth decisively.

Rebecca Reeve led the Tulsa attack with a season-high 23 kills on a .319 hitting-percentage, adding 12 digs to complete the double-double. Erica Bohannon joined Reeve with 20 kills of her own as the duo came up with timely kills down the stretch in the first set.

"I think that's the first time all season we had two players getting 20 kills, so that's nice and adds a little balance," said TU Head Coach Ryan Wills. "Rebecca Reeve played a great match. I think she had over 10 digs, maybe 13. She had a double-double. She played really great on the right side for us. It was great, because I think last time we played them, she struggled offensively a little bit on the right side, and this time she played great for us. That was a huge piece of it, because she passed well, and served well in the fifth set, really ripping at it and getting us into a good spot."

After leading 6-3 in the opening frame, the Hurricane found themselves behind USF (16-11, 7-8 The American) 9-6 before retaking the lead at 11-9 on back-to-back Reeve kills. Trailing 23-19, Reeve started a 5-0 Tulsa run that helped TU take control of the first, followed by a Bohannon kill before two more Reeve conversions that put the Hurricane ahead 24-23 on their way to taking the set. Reeve had seven kills while Bohannon added six in the set.

Tulsa hit .457 in the second set as eight different Hurricane recorded kills. Reeve put the Hurricane up 20-18 on her 12^th kill of the evening while Ashton Anderson had 10 of her 39 assists in a 25-22 set win.

USF responded in the third after a Tulsa 9-5 lead to avoid the sweep, going ahead 10-9 and never relinquishing the lead to take the third 25-20. In a similar fourth set, the Hurricane tied the set up seven times, but could not take their first lead since the opening point of the frame after tying it for the final time at 13-13 before UCF outscored Tulsa 11-3 down the stretch.

The Hurricane came out strong on the attack in the match-deciding fifth, forcing an early timeout after kills from Bohannon, Jaime Rahilly, and Trinity Alualu. Tulsa extended their lead to seven at 8-1 before the set tightened at 11-7. Bohannon capped off a 15-8 set win with her 20^th kill of the night for a TU team that hit .364 in the fifth.

"In the end, I'm pretty impressed that we came up with it in the fifth set," said Wills. "We were really struggling at the end of the fourth set, and we had a lot of things going on. But the players stepped up and made plays. We went back to the service line for a while, and really put pressure on them and got up big, and we were able to side out as the fifth set went on, and we were able to get it. Offensively, we played great in the fifth set, defensively we played great in the fifth set, and that's why it ended up the way it did."

Brooke Berryhill tallied 20 digs for the 15^th time this season while Anderson and Pardo added double-digit digs in the win. Emily Thorson and Alualu both pitched in 11 kills for a Tulsa team that hit .240.

The win put the Hurricane in fifth place in the American Athletic Conference heading into their match with fourth-place UCF on Saturday at 1 p.m.

"UCF is always an intense close match," said Wills. "They always have a good team. We went down there and they were all close sets. They got us in three down there, but they were close. We're excited about the opportunity to compete again on Saturday."

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