Tulsa Volleyball Moves to 2-0 on the Day, Downs SFA 3-1

Friday, September 2

San Marcos, Texas

5:00 p.m.

Tulsa

4-1

Stephen F. Austin

2-3

Tulsa

Stephen F. Austin

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Volleyball Moves to 2-0 on the Day, Downs SFA 3-1

9/2/2016 7:07:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Riley Ubben

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The University of Tulsa Volleyball team capped off day one of the Creeds and Crests Classic with their second win of the day, defeating Stephen F. Austin in four sets, 3-1. Tulsa (4-1 overall) had four players reach double-digit kills as they recorded a .231 hitting-percentage while holding SFA (2-3 overall) to just .054.

Tulsa hit a blistering .409 on their way to a 25-14 win in the first set behind six kills from senior outside hitter Rebecca Reeve. Reeve tallied a match-high 17 kills with a .304 hitting-percentage while adding 13 digs.

TU never trailed in the opening set as they steadily built a lead and found themselves ahead 16-13 before a Jaime Rahilly kill started a run. The Hurricane committed just two errors in the set, facilitating a 9-1 run to close out the set.

"We played really clean volleyball in the first set," said TU Head Coach Ryan Wills. "We had a short turnaround between the first and second match. We played a really good, intense match in match number one. We just kind of continued that into the second match and that first set might not have had the emotion attached to it that the last match had, but the volleyball was really clean. We served the pass really well and offensively we had plenty of kills and reduced our errors."

The Hurricane looked to take control of the second set early. With the match tied at 7-7, TU put together a 4-0 run behind kills from Haley Coulter, Rahilly, and Reeve. The freshman outside hitter, Coulter racked up a career-high 11 kills with a .296 hitting-percentage.

SFA matched Tulsa's run with a four-point spurt of their own to knot things up at 11-11. A kill from the Ladyjack's Justice Walker before a Tulsa attacking error put the Jacks up 17-15, a lead they would hold for the remainder of the set as they won it 25-21.

TU bounced back in the third set, jumping out to a 4-0 lead following two kills from Reeve and one from Rachel Moore. Erica Bohannon extended the Hurricane lead to five with one of her 13 kills, putting Tulsa up five at 8-3 before recording another a set point in the 25-16 win.

Trinity Alualu gave Tulsa a two-point lead in the fourth set, starting a quick four point run for the Hurricane. Another Alualu kill later in the set extended the TU to their largest of the set as they jumped ahead 20-11. SFA attempted to mount a comeback in the waning moments of the set, cutting the lead down to five before Tulsa took the set and match, 25-18.

Senior Brooke Berryhill led the Hurricane defense with 33 digs while freshman Taylor Horsfall added 17 for a Hurricane squad that totaled 102. Tulsa racked up 61 assists behind 27 from sophomore Ashton Anderson and 21 from freshman Mariah Pardo.

"The thing that sticks out to me the most is defensively, I thought we played really well," said Wills. "We had four players in double-digit digs. Offensively we were up and down but for the most part we had a lot of kills. Efficiency was a little up and down but we got plenty of kills. And when you have 102 digs and hold a team to .054, it's a really good recipe. We could've been a little better offensively but we did what we needed to and had enough balance."

Tulsa will look to wrap up play unbeaten at the Creeds and Crests Classic tomorrow when they take on host-school Texas State at 2 p.m. The Hurricane won their first game of the weekend tournament as they defeated Kennesaw State earlier today, 3-1.

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